Tense Reunions Redone
by JasonMorganfan87
Summary: Rewrite of my story 'Tense Reunions ' with many differences from the original version . Kate never joined the team after the joint investigation with the Secret Service. Now years later she takes Ziva's spot. What happens when Tim recognizes her? How do they know each other and how will Tim react to having her back in his life ?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own NCIS or any of its characters.**

**Tense Reunions Redone**

**A/N: In this story, Sarah doesn't exist and the team has not met Tim's father or Kate's sister.**

Tim walked off the elevator and though to the bullpen of NCIS. He found Tony there already at his desk. "Morning, Tony,"

"Hey, Probie. You're late. You have a death wish?" Tony asked with a smirk.

"Gibbs already knows about it, Tony. I had to take my yearly physical. You should get on that as well," Tim said as he went over to his desk and started getting settled in. He had just sat down when he noticed something on Ziva's desk. Ziva had been gone for about a month now and her desk and position had been left vacant. That was until today. The desk was now had some personal items and some piles of paperwork. "Uh, am I missing something?"

"You usually are," Tony retorted before following his friend's gaze to Ziva's old desk. "Oh, you mean that. Yeah, Gibbs finally filled the position."

"With who?" Tim asked, wondering if it was someone they already knew. It was possible that it was someone already in the building. A lot of people there would kill to be on their team.

"No one from here. Actually, it's a former Secret Service agent Gibbs and I met before you got here. That was a cool case. Aside from having to ride in a body bag," Tony said with a cringe.

Tim gave him a strange look. "Do I even want to know?"

"We got into a bit of a pissing contest with the FBI and the Secret Service. They wanted the body, we wanted the body. In order to stop them from taking it, we hid the real body and I climbed into the body bag," Tony explained.

"The answer to my question was no. That's all you had to say," Tim said.

Tony shrugged. "Anyway, Gibbs tried to get the Secret Service lady to join us then, but she declined. I guess she changed her mind."

"What's her name? She any good?" Tim asked.

"She's like Ziva only she has no problem with idioms and she's not quite as violent. Though I wouldn't cross her. She wasn't very impressed by me though," Tony said.

"Oh, then she is good," Tim teased.

"Oh, haha. Laugh it up, Probie," Tony said.

"So where is she? And you never said her name," Tim said.

"She's getting shown around the building. Oh, and her name is Kate," Tony said.

Tim stopped for a minute as he recognized the name and memories started to flood his mind. He immediately shook them off. He told himself a long time ago that he wouldn't think about that time in his life anymore. He couldn't and wouldn't break that vow just because some woman shared the same first name as someone who was no longer in his life.

"You okay, Tim?" Tony asked. He'd seen the other man become a little off for a second.

"Yeah, fine. I just forgot I have to get my proof of physical to the director," Tim said before taking the said documents from his bag. He the stood up and headed towards the stairs to the director's office.

Just as Tim left, Kate came in from the opposite direction.

"Hey, Kate. How was the tour?" Tony asked.

"Well, it's not like I've never seen it before. I was here during that joint case, remember?" Kate asked.

"True, but you didn't see everything and it was like ten years ago. So what made you decide to come work for NCIS? Tired of the Secret Service gig?" Tony asked.

Kate shrugged. "Needed a change I guess and I heard you guys were shorthanded."

Tony thought of Ziva and got quiet. Ziva's departure was still weighing on him. He really missed her. The others did too, he knew, but it was worse for him. She was more than just an agent and friend to him.

"You okay?" Kate asked.

"Yeah, fine," Tony said.

"Know who's not fine?" Gibbs asked as he entered the area. "A petty officer in Abrums Park. Grab your gear."

Tony and Kate immediately stood up and started getting there things.

Gibbs, meanwhile looked at Tim's desk. He saw his things there, but the agent was mysteriously missing.

Tony caught the look. "He's up in the director's office, Boss."

"Wait for him to come down and then meet us at the crime scene," Gibbs ordered. He could wait for McGee. It would probably only be a couple of minutes, but he wasn't a patient man.

"Got it, Boss," Tony said.

Gibbs turned and walked towards the elevator, motioning for Kate to follow him.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Tony and Tim arrived at the crime scene forty minutes later. "I told you not to take the highway, McStubborn. Now we're late and Gibbs is going to kill us," Tony grumbled.

"It's not my fault that this is the one day out of the week that there was heavy traffic at ten in the morning," Tim argued as they walked up to where Gibbs was with Ducky, Jimmy, and the body.

Gibbs immediately went over to them and gave them a hard stare. "Where the hell have you two been?"

"Traffic, Boss. It won't happen again," Tim said.

Gibbs continued to stare at them for a minute. "Get to work. Tony, bag and tag. McGee, start taking photos."

"On it, Boss," Tim said before pulling out his camera and getting closer to the body. He immediately started snapping photos.

Meanwhile, Kate had made her way over to Gibbs. "The jogger didn't know anything, Gibbs. Said he found him like this while on his morning run."

Tim stopped dead in his tracks. He knew that voice. He would know that voice anywhere no matter how much time had passed. No matter how hard he tried, he could never forget her. How she could be there with him right now, he didn't know. He hadn't seen or spoken to her in over twenty years.

It suddenly occurred to Tim that he hadn't seen her. He'd heard the voice that he thought had to belong to her, but he hadn't seen her face. He was almost afraid to turn around. Would it be her or was his mind playing tricks on him? And if it was her, how would he deal with that.

Finally deciding that for any of his questions to be answered he had to see the woman, Tim turned around. Sure enough, he came face to face with someone he never thought he'd see again. Caitlin Todd. His sister."


	2. Chapter 2

Tim stared at Kate in shock. Even while she was standing just a few feet away, he found it hard to believe she was actually there. It had been so long since he'd seen her. He was eleven-years-old when she disappeared on him. Actually, it had been that long since both his sisters disappeared on him, but it was Kate that hurt the most. She was the one he was closest to.

Tim felt himself shake a little. Why was she here now? Why after all these years had the older sister that left him decided to disrupt his life? She never showed when he needed her and wished she would come back. She didn't even have the decency to say goodbye to him when she left. It was obvious he didn't mean that much to her. So why was she here now?

Okay, so realistically, Tim knew that Kate probably didn't know he would be there, but he was still angry that she was there now. He was in a good place in his life. He'd finally managed to get past all the pain she and everyone else in his family had caused him. Why in the hell did she have to come back now?

Tim was soon pulled from his thoughts by Ducky's voice. "Timothy, I think you'll want to get a picture of the head wound."

"W…what?" Tim asked startled.

"The head wound. I think you should get a picture," Ducky repeated.

"Oh, right," Tim said before lifting his camera up once more. Just as he did though, it slipped out of his still shaky hands. "Oh, Damn it!"

"I got it," Jimmy said before picking it up off the ground and handing it up to him.

Tim immediately took the camera. "Thanks, Jimmy."

"Are you alright, Timothy?" Ducky asked concerned.

"Yeah, I think I just had too much coffee this morning. I'm a little jittery," Tim half lied. He was jittery alright, but it had nothing to do with coffee. The reason for his jitters was standing just a few feet away talking to Gibbs.

"You're sure," Ducky asked, still sounding a bit worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Tim said before bending down and resuming his pictures.

Tim soon heard footsteps, but he didn't acknowledge them. He needed to focus on the job at hand. If he didn't, he would lose it.

"Caitlin, I heard you were with us. It's good to see you again," Ducky said.

Tim froze for a minute once more. His sister was apparently right next to him. He didn't dare look at her though. He was afraid if he did, more pain would show than anger and he really wanted to focus on his anger.

"Nice to see you too, Doctor Mallard," Kate said.

"Now, Caitlin, I am almost positive I told you to call me Ducky the last time we met," Ducky said with a smile.

"Right, sorry, Ducky," Kate said.

Jimmy stood up from where he was kneeled down and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm James Palmer. Feel free to call me Jimmy."

Kate stared at his gloved covered hand that had blood on it from touching the body. She didn't have a problem touching gory things as long as she had gloves on, which because all she'd all so far was talked to a witness, she currently didn't "Uh…"

Jimmy looked at his hand and realized the problem. "Oh, right, sorry. I'm just so used to having to now that I forget sometimes."

Kate laughed. "It's not a problem. Caitlin Todd. Call me Kate."

"Nice to meet you, Kate," he said.

Kate looked at Tim who was still taking pictures and bent down. "Hi, you must be my other colleague. I'm Kate."

"Yeah, I know," Tim said tightly as he continued to take pictures.

"You have a problem?" Kate asked. It was quite obvious that this guy didn't like her, or at least the idea of a new teammate. He refused to even look at her, let alone tell her his name.

"The only problem I have is that you're keeping me from doing my job," Tim said angrily.

"Timothy!" Ducky chastised. He was shocked to hear Timothy completely dismiss Caitlin. Gibbs he would expect and even Anthony due to how hurt he was over Ziva's departure, but Timothy was always the mild mannered kind one. So why was acting so rude?

"You know, if you're gonna be an ass, you can at least look at me," Kate said. She was getting quite tired of this guy's attitude. He didn't even know her and he was being openly hostile to her. That wasn't something she just took lying down.

The more Kate spoke to him, the angrier he became. Finally he flipped his head up and around to stare right at her. His eyes were practically blazing with anger. "There. Happy now?"

Kate stared at him in shock. She knew him right away. It wasn't his face. His face she probably wouldn't have recognized because it had been so long. It was his eyes. She could never, ever forget those eyes. She saw them every time she closed her own. They were filled with a hell of a lot more anger now than she'd ever seen before, but she still knew them. "Tim."

"Whoa. You two know each other?" Jimmy asked surprised.

"No, we don't," Tim said. And it was true, they didn't. Kate didn't know him anymore and he'd realized a long time ago that he'd never really known her. She might be his sister, but she might as well be a stranger to him.

Tim got to his feet and immediately walked away without another word.

Kate quickly got up and followed him. "Tim. Tim, wait!"

"Leave me alone. I have nothing to say to you," Tim said without so much as glance at her.

Kate grabbed him by the arm. "Tim, please, just stop.

Tim yanked his arm away from her, but stopped trying to walk away from her.

"Look, I know you're angry and I know you probably weren't expecting this. I know I wasn't," Kate said. She was still shocked that this was even happening. She was going purely on instinct right now. All she knew was that her baby brother was back in her life and she had to find some way of making things right with him.

"Right, because if you knew I was here, you would've run in the other direction," Tim said bitterly.

Kate sighed. "I understand why you believe that, but it's not true. I'm glad to see you, Tim. I've missed you."

If anything Tim got even angry. "Do not insult my intelligence by lying to me, Kate. I'm not eleven anymore! You can't feed me some line of bull and expect me to believe it!"

Kate's face got just a little bit hard. "I have never done that. You know that."

"Honestly, Kate, I wonder if I ever knew you," Tim said. The sister he knew never would've abandoned him the way she did. She never would've walked out of his life without so much as a goodbye.

"Hey!"

They both turned to see Gibbs coming over to them.

"What the hell is going on over here?" Gibbs asked.

"Nothing, Boss. Just getting acquainted with our newest teammate," Tim said.

"How about getting acquainted with your job. If you're done with the pictures, go help Tony. You too, Kate," Gibbs ordered.

They both nodded and walked away.


	3. Chapter 3

Tim was in the car on the way back. Tony was driving, as he'd nagged the keys out of Tim's hand. Tim didn't put up a fight. He figured he probably shouldn't be driving right now anyway. He was still really angry after seeing Kate. That anger didn't look like it would go away anytime soon since he would be seeing her again at the office in about ten minutes and over and over again for many days to come since she worked with them now.

Tim wasn't sure how he was going to handle that. He didn't want to be forced to endure Kate's presence every single day, but what choice did he have. Normally, he would just count on the director putting a stop to it, but Gibbs would find a way to stop that from happening. He could transfer, but he really didn't want to do that. He liked where he was right now. He liked his team. He just wished his sister wasn't a part of it.

"Probie, you okay? You've been out of it since we left the crime scene," Tony finally said, interrupting Tim's thoughts.

"I'm fine," Tim lied.

"You're a horrible liar, McGee. Come on, just tell me what's going on," Tony pushed.

"Just drop it, Tony," Tim said tightly.

"No way, Probie," Tony said before pulling over to the side of the road.

"What the hell are you doing? We have to get back to the office. Gibbs will kill us if we don't get there soon," Tim said.

"Well, then I guess you better start talking quick because I'm not driving any further until you tell me what's going on. Come on, Tim," Tony encouraged.

Tim sighed. He didn't want to talk about Kate or his past with Tony or anyone else, but Tony was giving him little choice in the matter. If they didn't get back soon, Gibbs would kill them. Besides, they were all going to find out sooner or later. "Fine. It's Kate."

"Kate," Tony repeated.

"Yeah. I knew her before she joined the team," Tim told him.

Tony smiled a little with intrigue. "Really. Did you guys date?"

Well, Tim had to congratulate Tony on something. He'd made him feel something other than anger. Now he felt absolutely disgusted. Just the idea of someone thinking he had that sort of relationship with Kate made him sick. She was his sister for God's sake. "Oh my God, no! That is absolutely disgusting! She's my sister!"

Tony gaped in shock. He wasn't expecting that one. He didn't even know Tim had a sister. Then again, he didn't know much about Tim's family at all. He didn't talk about them much. They all knew about his grandmother because they met her during a case and they knew a couple of things about his father, but that was it. "You have a sister."

"I have two actually. Kate and Rachel," Tim told him.

"Holy crap! How come you never told us?" Tony asked.

"I don't like talking about the past. I'm sure you know that by now," Tim said. The fact that he talked so little about his past and his family should be Tony's first clue that he didn't like talking about it.

"But you've never so much as mentioned them in passing. You've mentioned your dad and your grandmother, but not them. Wait, you and Kate have different last names," Tony commented.

"We're half siblings. Kate and Rachel had a different father. He died a couple of years before I was born," Tim explained.

"Oh, so you're the baby of the family," Tony realized. It wasn't hard to believe. Tim had always come across as the young one out of his family. Although, before today, Tony thought he was an only child, so that made sense.

"Yeah. Rachel's nine years older than me and Kate is seven," Tim said.

"Wow. That's a big age difference. So I guess seeing as the way you've been acting, you guys weren't close," Tony said. Tim had been angry since the crime scene. He could only take that to mean that his friend didn't want Kate around.

"Rachel and I weren't especially close. I think she resented the fact that I wasn't her father's son," Tim said. Actually, it was more like she resented whose son he was. She'd looked at him for years like he was his father. That had changed when he was about eight or nine though. There had been an incident with his father and she seemed to see him in a new light. "Kate and I were close though. I loved her more than anyone in the world."

"Wow. That's quite the statement. You don't hear many talk about their siblings like that," Tony said. Granted he was an only child, but most people he talked to who had siblings called them annoying.

"Kate wasn't just a sibling, not really. Ever since our mother died, she took care of me. I depended on her," Tim said sadly. Talking about all this brought back a lot of memories, memories he'd tried so hard to forget. It just hurt too much knowing that the way he'd felt about Kate was actually one-sided.

"Your dad wasn't there?" Tony asked.

"Oh, no, it's not like that. He didn't neglect us, not the way you're thinking anyway. He kept a roof over our heads, made sure we had three meals a day, and ensured we got a good education. He took care of all of our physical needs. He lacked when it came to the emotional stuff though. He pretty much hated Rachel and Kate, and to be honest, he didn't seem to like me much either. I was a disappointment to him," Tim said. H wasn't sure why he was saying all this. After he started, he just couldn't seem to stop.

"Sorry, man. I know what that's like," Tony said. He didn't have the greatest father either. His father had treated him like he was less than too.

"I had Kate. She provided what my father never could. She told me she loved me every day. She encouraged me to be who I wanted to be instead of being who my father wanted me to be. She instilled values in me. She was my parent in more ways than he was," Tim said. And it was all true. He counted on Kate in ways that he never had his father. That was why it broke him when she left. It had become clear then that she never really cared about him. Honestly, he just wished that she had never pretended that she did.

"So what changed? Something obviously did or you wouldn't be angry at her being here," Tony said.

Tim took a deep breath and willed himself not to lose it. "I was eleven. One day she was there and everything was how it should be, the next she was gone. Just gone."

"She didn't say anything?" Tony asked. That just didn't seem like Kate. He'd only met her once before, but she just didn't seem like the type to walk away from someone like that without even saying goodbye.

Tim shook his head. "I woke up in the morning and she was gone. I asked my father where she was and he just said she had left and wouldn't be back. I didn't believe him at first. I waited for her to come home or even to just call. But she never did. I finally got the message about a month later. She'd abandoned me."

"Tim…"

"Don't, okay? It's obvious to me now that Kate never cared about me. Let's just get back to the office. Gibbs is waiting," Tim said. He couldn't talk about this anymore. Anger was slowly turning into pain and he couldn't let that happen. It would swallow him whole if it did.

Tony looked at his friend for a minute before starting the car up again and pulling back out onto the road.


	4. Chapter 4

Tim and Tony got off the elevator to find Gibbs waiting for them. If they didn't know any better, they would say that he knew exactly when they were coming off.

"Uh, hey, Boss. I guess you're wondering why it took us so long. See, we took a wrong turn and we ended up on the complete wrong side of town," Tony lied. He figured he shouldn't go with the traffic thing again. Gibbs probably wouldn't buy it, especially since they were originally right behind him.

Gibbs just stared at them and blinked a couple of times.

"Right. Getting to work now," Tony said before moving past his boss and towards his desk.

Tim followed suit and headed further into the bullpen. He paused briefly at Kate's desk before continuing the walk to his own.

"Kate, what do you got? Gibbs asked as he made his way over.

"The victim was Petty Officer Joseph Ronald. He just got back from a ten month tour in Iraq. He has a place downtown with his wife Megan Ronald," Kate said.

"Twenty bucks says it's her," Tony said.

Tim rolled his eyes.

"How would you know that? All you know is the woman's name?" Kate said.

"It's always the wife," Tony said simply.

"You want us to head down to talk to her, Boss?" Tim asked.

Gibbs nodded curtly.

Tim and Tony immediately stood up to go.

"No. McGee and Kate," Gibbs said. He knew McGee had some kind of problem with Kate. He'd seen the way McGee looked when he spoke to Kate at the crime scene. He didn't know what the issue was, but he did know he wanted it dealt with. Hopefully sending them off together would speed the process up. If not, he'd have to deal with it himself soon.

Tim was now sure that the universe hated him. Not only was he bombarded by the sister he hadn't seen in over twenty years, but now he had to ride alone in car with her and work an interview with her.

"Uh, Boss, I can go with Kate," Tony said. He knew the last thing Tim wanted right now was to go on an assignment with his sister.

Gibbs gave him a hard stare. "Are you McGee?"

"Well, no, Boss, but I… No, Boss I'm not McGee," Tony said before sitting back down. He then gave Tim an apologetic look.

Tim smiled slightly in appreciation for the effort.

"Well? Go," Gibbs ordered.

Tim sighed and headed for the elevator. He didn't even look back to see if Kate was following him.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Kate was in the car with Tim as he drove. It was a very awkward drive. She wanted to talk to him, but she wasn't sure what to say. She knew her brother was very angry with her and she couldn't blame him. She also knew the only way to get past that anger was to tell him the truth, but she couldn't do that. The truth was more painful than letting him believe she just abandoned him for the sake of it. She refused to hurt him more than he already was.

Kate looked over at her brother. She had to figure out something to say to him. She had to try to get him to at least talk to her. If she didn't then he was right about her. "So how have you been?"

Tim gripped the steering wheel tighter than necessary to try to contain his anger. "Don't, okay? I don't want to have small talk with you, Kate. I don't want to talk to you at all."

"You're gonna have to talk to me eventually, Tim," Kate said.

"Who says?" Tim asked. He was not going to talk to her if he didn't want to. Yeah, he had to work with her and that alone made him angry, but no one could make him talk to her if it wasn't about work.

"So what are you going to do? Just ignore me for eternity. We work together. You can't ignore me forever," Kate said.

"Maybe not, but I can keep it case related only. Unless of course you want to make it easier for both of us and tell Gibbs you've changed your mind," Tim said.

Kate looked at him for a minute before replying, "No. No, I'm not going anywhere." If she truly thought it was the best thing for Tim, she would leave, but it wasn't. It might make him happier for the moment, but in the end, all it would do was prove to him that she didn't care about him. No way would she allow that. If it was the last thing she did, she was going to get him to see how much she loved him.

"Then maybe I will," Tim said. He didn't mean it of course. He loved his job and his team very much. He was not willing to leave because of Kate. But maybe hearing him threaten to would get her to leave.

Unfortunately for Tim, Kate saw right through him. She knew right away he was trying to manipulate her. "Don't think you can manipulate me, Timothy. I knew you too well. If you've forgotten, I practically raised you for years. I know when you're lying and when you're trying to pull one over on me. No amount of time could change that."

Tim let out a hiss of anger.

"Oh, and even if you did resign, don't think that would be the end of it. My joining this team may have been what reunited us, but don't think for one second one of us leaving will separate us because it's not going to happen. If you quit, I'll just have to bug you at home," Kate said.

Tim turned and fixed his sister with a fierce glare. "Are you kidding me? What gives you the right to come back and force your way into my life."

"The fact that I'm your sister and the person who looked out for you for most of your childhood does. You're stuck with me, Kid. You better get used to that fact," Kate said with a smile.

Tim huffed and turned back to the road without another word.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

By the time it was time to pack up and go home, Tim was more than ready to leave. He'd had enough. He wanted out of there and away from Kate before he lost it.

After getting his things together, Tim made his way to the elevator to leave.

Tony was right behind him. "Hey. You alright?"

"Yeah, just peachy. I'm headed for the nearest bar. I need a drink, or five," Tim said.

"Alright, I'll keep you company. I could always use a drink," Tony said before following him into the elevator.


	5. Chapter 5

Kate walked into a restaurant downtown and surveyed the occupants. She finally found her sister towards the back. She'd called her right after she'd left the office. Rachel needed to know about Tim. She hadn't been as close to Tim when they were kids, but he was her brother too.

Kate made her way to her sister's table and sat down. "Hey."

"Hey. You look worn out. Rough first day?" Rachel asked.

"Strange day. If I didn't believe in fate before, I'm a firm believer after today," Kate said. There was no other way to describe her joining the same team as her baby brother without either of them knowing about it before hand.

Rachel raised an eyebrow. "Well, that's quite the statement. What happened?"

"Something I never expected, but I am so glad it did," Kate said. No matter what else, being reunited with her brother was the best thing to happen to her in a long time. She had missed him so much. Being away from him had torn a hole inside her. So she didn't care how angry he was at her as long as he was back in her life. "It turns out that one of my new teammates is someone I knew."

"But you knew that, didn't you? You told me you knew most of them from that case you worked while with the Secret Service," Rachel said.

"Yeah, but there was one other that wasn't there at that point. I met him today. He knew me and I recognized him almost immediately once I got a look at his eyes. There were filled with hate and anger, but they were his," Kate said.

"Whose?" Rachel asked. She had to admit her sister had her very curious now. Who could she have seen?

"Our brother's," Kate finally

Rachel's eyes went wide with shock. "You're kidding me. Tim?"

Kate nodded. "It was so unbelievable. He was right next to me when I figured it out. I was responded solely on instinct for first few minutes after finding out. It took me a little while to register what was actually happening."

"Wow. Tim joined NCIS? Talk about a slap in the face to the Admiral," Rachel said. Her stepfather had always been very vocal about his thoughts of NCIS, or NIS as it was called then. He considered it to be a place for people who were too week to join the Navy.

Kate smiled. "I couldn't be prouder. I only wish I could've seen John's face when he found out."

"So how is he? How's our baby brother doing?" Rachel asked.

"He's angry with me. I can't blame him for it. He thinks I betrayed him. As far as he's concerned, I abandoned him," Kate said sadly.

"You didn't tell him." It wasn't really a question. Rachel knew her sister hadn't told Tim the truth and she doubted she was going to.

"No, and I'm not going to. You're not gonna tell him either," Kate said in a firm tone.

"No, I wouldn't do that. I think he should know, but it's your call," Rachel said. Not only was it Kate's story to tell for the most part, but Tim was hers. He always had been and he always would be no matter how old he got. Rachel didn't have the right to interfere.

"He can never know. It would cause him too much pain," Kate said.

"From what you've told me, he's already in pain. He's letting anger mask his pain right now, but it's there and it's big," Rachel said.

"His pain would intensify times ten if he knew the truth and you know it," Kate said. She knew her brother was in pain and she hated it, but it was only one tenth of the kind of suffering he would go through if he knew the truth.

"Yeah, but he'd have you to get him through it. He'd have us," Rachel said. She would be there for her brother too. She couldn't always so that unfortunately. She wasn't proud of it, but when she was a kid, she wasn't close with Tim. She'd resented him because of who his father was. It wasn't fair, but at the time, she was just a kid herself and she really hated the Admiral. Tim looked just like his father and for a long time, she saw them as the same. Again, it wasn't fair and there was nothing she regretted more.

"He's got me anyway. I made sure that fact was clear to him today. Tim may be angry and he may want me gone, but it's not going to happen," Kate said firmly.

"He said he wanted you gone," Rachel said.

Kate nodded. "He asked me to resign. When that didn't work, he tried to tell me he would resign so that I would feel guilty and change my mind."

"Are you sure he didn't mean it? Are you sure he won't really do it?" Rachel asked.

"I'm positive. I don't care how much time has gone by. I know when he's manipulating me," Kate said.

"And if he quits just to spite you?" Rachel asked.

"I don't think he will, but if he does, all he'll find is that he's out of a job. I told him in no uncertain terms that I'm not going away no matter what happens at the office," Kate said.

Just then, Kate's phone began to ring. She took it out of her pocket and answered it. "Agent Todd."

"_Kate, hi. Did Gibbs by any chance tell you his rules?" _came Tony's voice.

"Tony?" Kate asked.

"_Rule number forty-five is to clean up your own mess,"_ Tony said with irritation and stress in his voice.

"Tony, I don't have time for games. Just tell me what you want," Kate demanded. She didn't have time for this. She had her hands full trying to figure out how to get her brother to forgive her without ripping his world apart.

"_I want you to come to Mike's Bar and clean up your mess!"_ Tony practically yelled into the phone.

Kate was about to question him again, but then she remembered that he'd left with Tim earlier. This probably had something to do with him. "Is my brother with you?"

"_Gee, aren't you the genius? Yeah, now get down here. I tried to keep him semi-sober, but it didn't work and he's on the verge of a meltdown. It's kind of unchartered territory for me with him, so come fix your mess!" _Tony yelled before the line went dead.

Kate immediately put her phone away and started getting her things together. "I've gotta go. Tim's drunk and I have to go get him."

"I'm coming with you," Rachel said before throwing a few dollars down for the drink she'd ordered, grabbing her things and rushing out with her sister.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony was sitting at the bar with Tim as he drank. He'd tried several times to get Tim to stop drinking, but to no avail. The bartender had been no help either. He kept serving. He was apparently the irresponsible type that didn't care how drunk you got as long as you kept buying.

Tony had spent twenty minutes trying to get Tim to stop. Finally, he broke down and called Kate. He felt really guilty about it. He knew Kate was the last person Tim wanted to see right now. Hell, she was the reason he was in this state to begin with. But Tony felt he had no choice. His friend had been tossing back shots since they got there. He was drunk within a half an hour. He could barely stand and he'd spent the whole time ranting and raving about his sister. It was either call Kate or Gibbs. The latter seemed like an even worse idea. He wouldn't respond well to Tim getting drunk in the middle of the week, especially since they had an active case.

Tony watched as Tim went to talk another shot of vodka. He decided to try one last time and reached for the glass. "Come on, Probie, you gotta stop."

Tim angrily pushed Tony's hand away from him. "Get away from me, DiNozzo! If I want to drink, I'll drink. You're not my father. Though he probably wouldn't care. Kate would've at one point. Or maybe not. Maybe she would've just pretended."

"Look, I get it, man. You're pissed at your sister. But, getting plastered isn't going to make the pain or anger go away. Just cool it a little bit," Tony said.

Tim glared angrily. "Don't talk to me about how I feel! You haven't got a clue! And you're certainly not one to talk about drinking too much. If you don't like what I'm doing, feel free to leave! Bartender, get me another!"

Just then, Tony heard the door open. He turned to see Kate there with another woman. He immediately got up and went over to them. "Well, it's about time."

"How bad?" Kate asked as she looked over at her brother and watched him toss back a shot of Vodka.

"How does it look? He's been knocking back shots since we got here. You're the reason this is happening so fix it," Tony demanded.

"Give me another one," they heard Tim say to the bartender.

Kate immediately passed Tony to go deal with the situation.

Rachel decided to stay back for now and let Kate handle it. She was better equipped to help Tim right now. She'd done it for years and was very effective with it. Rachel would probably just make it more difficult by getting involved.

Kate got to the bar area just as the bartender went to hand her brother another drink. She immediately took it out of his hands. "I don't think so. You're done."

Tim turned and glared at his older sister. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Apparently I'm watching you lose your mind. Now, let's go, I'm getting you out of her," Kate said before going to take him by the arm.

Tim immediately pulled his arm away from her. "Like hell! I'm not going anywhere with you! Now give me my drink and get the hell out of here!"

"The only thing you're getting to drink for the rest of the night is water, and it will be at my place so I can look out for you," Kate said firmly.

"Back off, Kate! You can't tell me what to do anymore! I am not a child!" Tim slurred angrily.

"Yeah? Then stop acting like it," Kate said.

"Okay, I think you should back off," Tony said as he attempted to make his way over to them.

Rachel grabbed him by the arm and pulled him around to face her. "Okay, we appreciate you calling, but it's you that needs to back off right now."

"Who the hell are you?" Tony asked.

"My name is Rachel Cranston. I'm Tim and Kate's sister," Rachel said.

"Oh, so you're the other one responsible for this mess. Nice to know," Tony said sarcastically.

"You really need to back off right now. I very much appreciate your dedication to my brother, but this is family matter that has absolutely nothing to do with you. You have no idea of the dynamics of our family, so I suggest that you stay out of it!" Rachel said in firm, hard tone. Normally she was more understanding with people. It was in her nature as a psychiatrist, but this was different. This was her family. She was not about to let someone she'd known longer than five minutes try to judge her and her sister. Tim was different. He was their brother and his anger was justified. This Tony guy was something else entirely.

"I know you left him. I know you broke him. That's all I need to know. Now I asked Kate to come down here to help him, not to try to force him to leave with her. She has no right," Tony said.

"Actually, she has every right. She's probably the only one in this world who does. And what exactly did you think was going to happen? Did you think she would just come down, ask him nicely to stop and that would be that? If that was the case, you could've done that. You asked her to come down here to fix the problem and get Tim home safely. Let her do it her own way. She has a lot of experience taking care of him," Rachel said.

Meanwhile, Kate was looming over Tim looking as intimidating as she could, which was a lot. "I'm not going to repeat myself. I'm not going to let you drown in alcohol because you're pissed at me. Get up now! You're coming home with me to sleep it off."

"Why? What do you care how drunk I get? For all you know, I've been getting drunk every night for the last twenty-four years," Tim said bitterly.

"Yeah, well, I wasn't there then. I'm here now and I'm not going to let you destroy yourself," Kate said firmly.

"That's right, you weren't there. You chose not to be. You don't get to come back now and try to tell me what to do," Tim slurred.

"I'm not trying, I'm doing it. Now I said, get up," Kate repeated one last time before grabbing his arm to pull him up.

Tim must have been very drunk because the pressure on his arm caused him to lose his balance and fall off the stool.

Kate immediately started to pull him up. Rachel came over to help as well and the both of them managed to get him to his feet.

Tim was disorientated by what had happened. He had a hard time not falling. In fact, he was sure the only things keeping him on his feet were the two women that held him upright. He was so out it now that he wasn't even sure who the other person was. He was sure one was Kate, but he didn't know about the other.

"Alright, we're getting you out of here. DiNozzo, make yourself useful and get the door," Kate ordered.

Tony scowled, but he went over to the door and opened it for them. "You gonna be in tomorrow?"

"I will, he probably won't. I'll have to figure out something to say to cover for him. Now I'm taking him home. I'll see you tomorrow," Kate said before she and Rachel walked out with Tim and headed for the car.


	7. Chapter 7

Tim woke up the next morning feeling like a truck had hit him. His head felt like someone hit it with a jackhammer, he was nauseous, and he was severely dehydrated. The consequences of drinking in access, he supposed. He hadn't meant to get so drunk, but once he started, he just couldn't bring himself to stop.

Tim blinked a couple of times to adjust his eyes to the light. Then he looked around the room to see that he wasn't at home. He was in a bedroom someplace that he'd never been before.

After a minute, Tim vaguely remembered seeing Kate at the bar. He remembered yelling at her a bit and then everything else was a blank. She must have gotten him out of there and taken him back to his place.

Tim started to become angry. He did not need Kate pretending to care again after all these years. And he knew that it was an act because she'd proved she didn't care when she walked out on him all those years ago.

Tim got up quickly to go confront his sister, an act he instantly regretted as it caused his head to hurt even more. "Oh, geez. Okay, note to self: No sudden movements while suffering the effects of a hangover."

Tim took a few seconds and slowly made his way out of the room. As soon as he stepped outside, he heard someone from down the hall. He walked down towards the noise and followed it to the kitchen. He expected to see Kate there, but instead it was Rachel. She was placing foods that should never go together into a blender.

Rachel turned as soon as she heard someone approach. "Hey, little brother."

"Rachel? What are you doing here? I thought I was at Kate's," Tim said.

"You are. I got here a couple of hours ago," Rachel said before starting up the blender.

Tim grabbed his ears and groaned. Heightened noise was another lovely side-effect of a hangover. "Damn it, Rachel!"

Rachel smiled slightly after shutting off the blender. "Sorry, little brother, but I don't have much sympathy. Your current condition is of your own making."

"Yeah, like you've never drank before," Tim said sarcastically before going into the dining room and sitting down at the table. He distinctly remembered Rachel getting drunk a lot when he was a child. It was a nightly ritual for her actually.

"And no one had any sympathy for me either," Rachel said as she poured the contents of the blender into a glass. She then brought it over to Tim. "But I will help you now by telling you to drink this. It'll help."

Tim had half a mind to tell Rachel to shove her hangover cure. He might not be as angry at Rachel as he was with Kate, but he was still angry. In the end though, his desire to get rid of his hangover won out and he started drinking. He drank very quickly, knowing that if he stopped to actually taste it, it would make him sick. When he was done, he looked back up at Rachel. "Where's Kate?"

"She went into work. It's almost eleven now," Rachel said.

Rachel's words took a minute to sink into Tim, but once they did, his eyes widened in horror and he jumped up. "Oh, God! I'm screwed!"

"Calm down. Kate will cover for you and I'm sure that friend you were with last night will help," Rachel said.

"Tony," Tim said as he sat down. He still felt uneasy though. No matter what Tony or Kate said to Gibbs, he was still in deep trouble. Gibbs was not an easy person to lie to. He would probably see right through it. Translation: Tim was totally and completely screwed.

"Right. He'll help. He obviously cares about you," Rachel said. She hadn't liked him getting in the way of Kate trying to get Tim out of there, but it did prove that he cared.

"He the one that called you?" Tim asked annoyed. He didn't see how else they could've known where he'd be. Tony had to have called them, and that irritated him. They were the reason he was in such a position and he knew that. He knew that he didn't want to see them."

"I know that look on your face, Tim. Don't blame your friend. He called us because he was faced with a situation he couldn't control. He did the right thing," Rachel said.

Tim glared at her. "Oh, so now you're claiming to know me. You didn't even really know me when I was a child. You didn't give me the time of day until the last few years you and Kate were around."

Rachel felt a pang of guilt at her brother's words. "You're right. I was angry at the Admiral and I took it out on you. You have every right to hate me for that. But Kate is a different story."

"You're right, she is. She actually pretended to give a damn about me. That makes her worse, not better," Tim said.

Rachel sighed and went and sat down across from her brother. "Tim, I understand why you believed that as a child. You woke up one day and pretty much your whole world was gone. Then you had your father in your ear telling you that we never cared about you. As an eleven-year-old boy, what else were you to believe. But you told us last night that you're not a child anymore.

Tim looked at her and frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means start thinking for yourself! I think you know by now that your father's word isn't law. Stop taking his word for everything," Rachel said.

"I'm not! I know my father's a liar. I know he's a bastard. This isn't about him. Kate meant everything to me for years! She was always there for me. She looked out for me. And then she was just gone," Tim said before looking down sadly.

"Exactly," Rachel said.

Tim looked up and gave a quizzical look. What exactly did she mean by that?

"You said it yourself, she was always there for you. She loved you more than anything. No one forced her to do that. No one forced her to take over for Mom died. She did it because she wanted to. So what could've made her leave so abruptly? There must have been something, right? Nobody just walks away from someone they love just like that. Don't you think before you judge, you should try to figure out why it happened?" Rachel asked. She knew Kate would probably kill her for even eluding to this secret, but she really felt that Tim should know the truth. All keeping it a secret was doing was causing both Tim and Kate pain. As their older sister, it was her job to try to put a stop to that.

Tim was quiet for a few moments. His brain was trying to process what his sister was saying to him. He never thought about it before. He never thought about there being a deeper reason behind Kate leaving him. He just figured she got sick of playing 'mom'. But what if Rachel was right? What if there was a reason. "Alright, I'm listening. Tell me what happened."

Rachel cringed. "I can't. I promised her I would never tell you. But that doesn't mean you can't find out for yourself. You are a federal agent after all. Use your detective skills."

"Don't screw with me, Rachel. If there's not really a reason, don't do this to me," Tim warned. He couldn't survive that. It was bad enough to think Kate didn't really care about him. If he were to have hope that he was wrong about that and then it was taken away from him, it would destroy him.

"I wouldn't do that. I know how badly it would ruin you. I would never do that to you," Rachel said.

Again, Tim was quiet for a few seconds. "I should get home."

Rachel nodded. "Get your things. I'll drive you."

Tim got up and ventured back towards the bedroom in search of his shoes.


	8. Chapter 8

Later that night, Tim made his way through Gibbs' house. He had to tell Gibbs the real reason he wasn't in work today. He didn't know what excuse Kate and Tony had used to cover for him, but he knew Gibbs would see through it. That man could see through any lie, no matter how good. He was like a human lie detector. Tim could only hope that if he told the truth, Gibbs would have mercy on him.

Tim walked to the basement and started walking down the stairs. He found Gibbs down there sanding the wooden table he was building.

"McGee," Gibbs greeted without even bothering to look back at him.

Somehow Tim wasn't surprised that Gibbs knew it was him. Somehow that man just knew everything. "Hey, Boss."

Gibbs finally turned to look at Tim. "You don't look like someone who has the flu."

Tim cringed. "No, Boss, I don't have the flu. I was sick this morning, but it was more the self-inflicted kind of sick."

Gibbs face got hard and stern. "You were hung over."

Tim nodded. "I screwed up, Boss."

"Ya think, McGee! We're in the middle of a damn case! What the hell were you thinking?" Gibbs asked angrily.

"Honestly, I wasn't. Yesterday was the day from hell and I just needed to unwind. I didn't intend to drink as much as I did. It's just that the more I drank, the more I wanted to drink. I was angry and hurt and I chose to deal with it the wrong way. It won't happen again," Tim promised. He intended to keep that promise too. He'd screwed up by choosing to drown himself in alcohol. It hadn't helped him any. All it really did was leave him feeling like crap the next morning.

"You gonna tell me, McGee? You gonna tell me what the hell is going on?" Gibbs asked. Despite the way it was phrased, it wasn't really a question. He expected an explanation for what was going on between McGee and Kate. If it weren't for the fact that they had been in the middle of a case, he would've forced the information out of Kate earlier.

Tim sighed. "It's Kate."

"I'd figured that much out on my own. Wanna tell me something I don't know?" Gibb asked sarcastically.

"Well, I'm pretty sure you don't know this. She's my older sister," Tim told him.

Gibbs prided himself with not being surprised often, but that was one curve ball he hadn't seen coming. At the most, he thought that maybe they dated. He didn't think they were actually related. "And you didn't think that was something I should know? What the hell were you thinking keeping that from me? What were either of you thinking?"

"I think we've established that I didn't do much thinking yesterday. I spent all day in an anger filled haze. I was angry with Kate for coming back into my life, but mostly I was angry with her for leaving it in the first place," Tim admitted.

Gibbs raised an eyebrow as if to tell his agent to go on.

Tim sighed and sat down on one of the workbenches in the basement. "Kate wasn't just a sister to me. She was everything to me. My mother died when I was five. I barely even remember her. Kate essentially took over for her. She took care of me. For six years, she did nothing but look out for me. Then she was gone. She didn't even say goodbye. She just disappeared one night."

"And to you that meant she didn't care anymore," Gibbs said. It wasn't a question. Tim's actions over the last day screamed that that was what he thought.

"I was eleven-years-old. What else was it supposed to mean? But even as I got older I still thought it. I didn't have any reason not to. She left and never even tried to contact me. What was I supposed to think?" Tim asked.

"What about now?" Gibbs asked. He got the feeling from this conversation that his opinion had recently changed.

Tim sighed. "I don't know. This morning I spoke with my other sister, Rachel. She said some things that sort of made sense. Kate was always there for me. I never got the impression that she resented me. I got that from Rachel, but not Kate. So what could change so dramatically? What could make her just leave? She showed up at the bar last night. I don't remember much about the encounter, but somehow I got to her place. She and Rachel must have gotten me out of there. Why would she even show up if she didn't care?"

"Those are good questions. You gonna try to find the answers?" Gibbs asked.

"I don't know," Tim said. Honestly, he was afraid of the answers. He was afraid he would find out that he was right the first time and that Kate just left because she felt like it. Rachel had assured him there was a legitimate reason, but if she was wrong? He couldn't live with holding out hope only to lose it again.

"Right, because the answers might not be what you're looking for. Tell me, is this any better. Is thinking your sister abandoned you really better than whatever the truth is?" Gibbs asked.

"But what if that is the truth. What if by seeking answers, I'll I'm doing is setting myself up for another fall. I don't know if I can live with that," Tim said.

"You've got a point. Maybe leaving things the way they are is best for you. But what about Kate? You said it yourself; Kate has always been there for you. She's always loved you and she's always taken care of you. Don't you at least owe it to her to learn the truth before you condemn her?" Gibbs asked. Honestly, he doubted the situation was like McGee grew up thinking it was. He didn't know Kate all that well, certainly not as well as Tim, but she just couldn't see her abandoning her own brother.

Tim pondered for a minute. He honestly hadn't looked at it from that angle. He probably should have. Gibbs was right. Kate had spent years catering to his every need. Wasn't it only fair that he give her the benefit of the doubt? "Yeah, I think I do. Thanks, Boss," Tim said as he stood up.

Gibbs nodded. "When you get in tomorrow, head straight for the director's office. You have to disclose."

"Right. See you tomorrow, Boss," Tim said before heading up the stairs.


	9. Chapter 9

Tim walked into the bullpen the next morning and headed for his desk. When he got there, he saw only Tony at their workspace.

"Uh, hey, Tim," Tony said hesitantly. He hadn't seen or spoken to the man since the bar and he wasn't sure how mad the younger man might be.

"Relax, Tony, I'm not mad," Tim said as went to put hi stuff down by his desk. He had been at first, but the more he thought about it, the more he saw that Tony really didn't have much choice. He had been so drunk that night that he didn't even remember everything. That alone told him he was probably out of control.

"You're not? Great. I didn't want to do it, you know? It's just that I couldn't get you to stop drinking and short of calling Gibbs, it was the best solution I could come up with," Tony said.

Okay, now Tim was grateful Tony had called Kate. The latter was definitely not something that would've ended well for him. Gibbs had been pissed finding out the next day. He would've killed him if he had to come get him while he was drunk. "I support your decision one hundred percent."

Tony laughed. "Yeah, that would be bad. Listen, Kate and I tried to cover for you, but I don't think Gibbs believed us."

"It's okay. I went to Gibbs' last night and I told him the truth," Tim said.

Tony became wide-eyed. "And you're still alive?" That shocked him. Not only had it been the middle of a work week, but it was the middle of a case.

"I told him the truth about everything. He knows why I made such a stupid decision. If I hadn't, he probably would've killed me," Tim said with a chuckle.

"So what happened after you left the bar?" Tony couldn't help but ask.

"I don't even remember leaving the bar. I vaguely remember seeing Kate and yelling at her a little, but that's it. I don't remember what happened afterwards.

"You passed out. That's what happened."

Both men turned to see Kate walking to her desk.

Tim took a deep breath and walked over to his sister's desk. No matter what else, he owed her for taking care of him that night, especially if Rachel was right and there was a good reason for her walking out of his life. "I'm sorry. You shouldn't have had to deal with all that."

"You don't owe me an apology, Tim. I'm at least partially responsible for you being in that position," Kate said. She wouldn't take all the responsibility as he had made the choice to get drunk, but she did realize that she played a part in it. "Besides, it's my job."

A part of Tim couldn't help but went to come out with a biting remark about her bailing on him before, but he held it in and tried to remind himself that he'd decided to lay off until he got some answers. "Um, I told Gibbs the truth last night. He wants both of us in the director's office to disclose. He's probably already up there."

Kate nodded and stood up from her desk.

Tim led the way upstairs to the director's office. Once there, he knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Tim opened the door and found that Gibbs was in fact there with Vance.

"Agent McGee, Agent Todd, come in and shut the door," Vance ordered.

Tim walked inside, followed by Kate who closed the door behind her.

"So the way, I hear it, the two of you are related. Would either of you care to tell me why I'm only hearing about this now?" Vance asked.

"Look, Director, neither one of us was expecting it. I can only speak for myself, but I spent most of that first day in a state of shock," Tim said. That was partially true. He was also angry as hell and he didn't want to go explaining his past to everyone. He'd never been one to talk about his personal life.

"It's my fault, Director. I should've said something to Gibbs at least. I take full responsibility," Kate said hoping to take most of the heat onto herself and keep it off of her brother.

"What's done is done, Leon," Gibbs said.

"Never before have family members been on the same team and I'm not certain I want to start that trend with you two," Vance said.

"I understand. If you want someone to leave, I'll go," Kate said. She didn't want to go, but if someone was going to, it would be her, not Tim. Besides, she meant what she said to her brother the other day. Job or no job, she wasn't walking out of his life again.

"You're not going anywhere. Neither of you are," Gibbs said firmly.

Vance glared at Gibbs, but it was mostly show. He'd already ironed all this out with Gibbs. Still he had to play the part of the hard ass director. "If I allow the thing to remain the way they are, I need certain assurances. I need your words that you'll remain professional at all time."

Kate hesitated. She honestly wasn't sure she could make that promise. They were talking about her baby brother here. She wasn't good at being objective when it came to him. "I…I can only give you my word that I'll do my best."

"That's not good enough, Agent Todd," Vance said sternly.

"How about mine? They'll never be in a position where they'll have to worry about being objective," Gibbs said.

Vance narrowed his eyes at the team leader. "One instance where the two of them are anything less than professional and one of them is transferred."

"Understood, Director," Gibbs said with a smirk.

Vance turned back to the two siblings. "Dismissed.

Kate and Tim immediately turned and walked out of the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Later that night, Tim was sitting in a restaurant with his grandmother. Penny was the best person he knew that might be able to answer his questions about Kate. He only hoped she would.

"So, Timothy, what's the special occasion? You don't really expect me to believe you invited me to dinner out of the blue just to catch up, do you?" Penny asked.

Tim smiled. "No, Penny, I don't. You're much too sharp for that."

"Oh, you've got that right. So what is it? I can see in your eyes that something's bothering you," Penny said.

"I need to ask you something and I need you to tell me the truth," Tim aid.

"I've always told you the truth, Timothy," Penny said.

"You've never lied to me, but you have refused to answer me. I can't have that this time. I need real answers," Tim said.

"I'll do my best," Penny said.

Tim sighed. He supposed that was the best he was going to get.

"I need to know why Kate left," Tim said.

Penny visibly stiffened at the mention of Kate's name. "Timothy, that is nearly twenty-five years in the past. Let it stay there."

"I can't do that. I need to know the truth. Did Kate walk out of my life because she didn't want to be there anymore or was there another reason?" Tim asked.

"Timothy, don't go there," Penny said seriously.

"So there is another reason. Tell me," Tim said. He could tell from the look on his grandmother's face, and by the way she insisted he drop it, that she knew exactly what was going on.

"I can't. I promised her I would never tell you," Penny said.

A look of disbelief crossed Tim's face. "Have you been in touch with my sister all these years?"

"No. I haven't seen Caitlin since you were around twelve," Penny said.

"So you saw her for another year after she left. Why didn't you tell me?" Tim asked angrily.

"Because your father forbade me from even mentioning her name to you," she said.

"Why?" Tim asked.

"It doesn't matter," Penny said.

"It matters to me, Penny. I spent the last two and half decades believing that my sister, actually both my sister, didn't care about me. I have the right to know if that's true or not," Tim said.

"It's not. Just leave it at that," Penny practically begged.

"I can't!" Tim yelled, causing heads from all around to turn to him. He took a deep breath and made an effort to speak calmly. "She's my sister and she walked out of my life. I deserve to know why."

"She had to."

"Why?" Tim asked, barely keeping the exasperation from his voice.

Penny sighed. She knew she wasn't going to get out of this without telling her grandson the truth. He was too stubborn to let this go. "Because she wasn't safe here."

Tim felt himself stiffen. "What do you mean she wasn't safe?"

"I never thought he would do something like that. He was a hard man, but he always attacked in words. Never in my wildest nightmares did I think he was even capable of that," Penny said with a shudder. It was still hard for her to even think about it.

"C…capable of what? What did Dad do?" Tim asked. He knew it was his father his grandmother was talking about. She was describing him to a tee.

Penny looked her grandson right in the eye and took a deep breath. "He raped her."


	10. Chapter 10

Tim sat there frozen for a moment. For a second, he thought he must have heard wrong, or maybe he was just hoping he had. But the more he looked at his grandmother, the more he knew he'd heard her correctly. She'd just accused his father of raping his sister.

Tim stared at her in disbelief. He knew it had to be true because his grandmother would never lie about something like this, especially when it involved her own son, but at the same time it felt so unbelievable to him. His father had always been a cold bastard. All Tim's life, his dad had treated him like crap, his sisters too when they were around. But rape was a far cry from verbal abuse. Then again, abusers usually escalated.

"Timothy, say something," Penny begged.

"Kate told you this?" Tim asked, his voice filled with emotion.

"Not at first. She didn't volunteer the information. She didn't trust me. You know she didn't trust me much when you all were children," Penny said.

Tim nodded. He did know that. His grandmother was his father's mother and she'd always defended him. Kate and Rachel never really trusted the woman for that reason.

"But I'd known something was wrong for a couple of months. So one day while your father was out of town for the day, I had Rachel take you out, while spoke with Kate," Penny said.

"I remember that day. She took me the history museum. When we got back, Kate was crying. I asked her what was wrong, but she claimed everything was fine and did what she always did. She told me to go finish my homework. That was the last day I spent with her. Oh my God! Why didn't I see it?" Tim asked. He should've known something was wrong. He'd seen Kate that day. He'd seen how upset she was. He should've known that had something to do with her leaving.

"You were a child. You could never have even imagined what had happened. I didn't even suspect until she told me," Penny said.

Tim ran a hand through his hair. Shock was slowly beginning to wear off and anger was taking its place. His father had raped his sister. He had hurt her in the worst way imaginable and that made Tim more angry than he could even describe. "Why isn't he in prison? Why does he get to walk around as this honorable Navy Admiral? There is nothing honorable about him!"

Penny sighed. "I forced Kate to leave that night. There was no way I was going to leave her in that house with your father for one more night. The plan was to get both you out of the house, but your father came home while we were in the process of leaving. I told him that I knew what he had done and I was taking you both out of there. He wouldn't let me take you though. He said that if I tried, he would have me arrested. My hands were tied. Kate was another story. I had to get her out of there. She might not have technically have been my family, but I couldn't in good conscience leave her in that house. She fought me the entire time, Timothy. She didn't want to leave you. I had to make her," Penny said.

"I understand that. I understand that you had to protect her. I'm grateful for it. What I don't understand is why he's not in prison for what he did. You still haven't explained that," Tim said.

"It wouldn't have done any good to call the police or NIS. It had been months. There was physical evidence. It was the word of an eighteen-year-old girl, who made no secret of her hate for her stepfather, against a decorated Navy Admiral," Penny said sadly.

"They wouldn't have believed her," Tim realized.

"Unlikely, and even if they did, they wouldn't be able to do much about it. Anyway, after that day, your father refused to allow either of your sisters to have any contact with you. As it was, the only way I was able to get him to let me see you was to threaten to tell everyone he knew what he did," Penny said.

"Why didn't you do that anyway?" Tim asked. It wouldn't have gotten his father arrested, but it would've ruined him. It was nowhere near what he deserved, but at least it would've been better than nothing.

"Because he still would've had you at the end of the day. Playing it the way I did was the only way I could see you and ensure you remained safe," Penny told him.

"Why didn't you tell me? I get why you didn't back then, but what about when I became an adult?" Tim asked.

"Because Kate didn't want you to know. She was afraid of what it would do to you," she said.

"Afraid of what it would do to _me?"_ Tim asked in disbelief. He couldn't believe it was him his sister was thinking about while all this was going on. As far as he was concerned, he wasn't important. Kate should've been thinking about herself, not him.

"She was worried that you would blame yourself for what your father did. She didn't want that to happen. She didn't want you to feel guilty," Penny said.

"I don't feel guilty," Tim said. He really didn't. Maybe guilt would come later, but right now, all he felt was white hot rage at the bastard he called his father. It was a very good thing the Admiral was not in front of him right now because he was pretty sure he would kill the man. And that wasn't just something that people say when they're angry. He really would do it.

"Good because you shouldn't. What your father did was not your fault. He is the villain, not you?" Penny said firmly.

"Why did you keep trying to get me to have a relationship with him? You knew the kind of man he was and you still kept trying to get me to keep in touch with him. Why?" Tim asked. It didn't make sense. His grandmother obviously hated what his father had done, so why did she fight for him like that.

"I did that for you. I didn't want you to lose someone else you loved. You loved him until today, Timothy," Penny said.

"No. I loved who I wanted him to be. But he'll never be that. I realize that now. I never thought he could be this though. Never in my wildest dreams did I think he could be this. But he is and for that, if I ever see him again, I can't guarantee he'll survive the encounter," Tim said fiercely before standing up from his seat.

"Timothy, where are you going?" Penny asked.

"Where do you think?" Tim countered before walking away.


	11. Chapter 11

Kate was in her apartment making herself dinner when she heard a knock at the door. She immediately turned the burner down on the stove and went to answer the door. She looked through the peephole and saw that it was her brother.

Kate was quite surprised and also slightly concerned to see Tim at her door now since she knew he was still furious with her. She quickly opened the door to let him. "Hey. Is everything okay?"

"Can we talk?" Tim asked.

"Yeah, come on in," Kate said before moving aside to let her brother in. Once he was, she closed the door behind him. "Are you okay?"

"Um, I'm kinda pissed off," Tim said. Actually that was an understatement. He was downright furious. He wanted to murder someone, preferably a navy admiral that answered to the name John McGee.

All Tim had been able to think about since he left his grandmother was what his father did to his sister. He kept picturing over and over again his father forcing himself on Kate while she begged him to stop. It made him sick and filled him with a kind of rage he'd never felt before in his life.

"Yeah, I can see that," Kate said. Just looking in her brother's eyes, she could see he was mad. He had been mad for days, but somehow he seemed more so now, if that was even possible. "So what happened? You're more angry than you were at the bar the other night and you were downright hostile then."

"Sorry," Tim mumbled. He was really sorry about that. He was sorry about everything he'd said to her since she returned to his life. He'd accused her of abandoning him and it wasn't true. Even after the hell she went through, she still tried to stay for his sake. She didn't deserve the crap he put on her these last couple of days.

"Why are you apologizing to me?" Kate asked a bit nervously. There was no reason she could fathom for Tim to apologize for the way he'd been treating her. He should still be mad as hell at her unless someone told him something they shouldn't have.

"Because the way I treated you was cruel and you didn't deserve it. You didn't leave because you wanted to. You left because you didn't have a choice," Tim said.

That was all the confirmation Kate needed. Tim knew the truth. Rachel had broken her promise to her and told her brother everything. "Oh, I'm gonna kill Rachel."

"Rachel didn't tell me. She refused to. The only thing she told me was that there was something to know, and that's something I should've figured out on my own," Tim said. He really should've known that it wasn't as cut and dry as his sister deciding she didn't want to take care of him anymore. There had been nothing in her behavior to suggest that. He should've realized that.

"Well, I know the Admiral didn't tell you, so I guess that leaves Penny," Kate said in an irritated tone. She was not happy. Penny had promised her that she wouldn't tell Tim, just as Rachel had. She never wanted Tim to know what happened to her. She didn't want that put on him. She knew that if it was, he would feel guilty for what his father did and he would feel like he had to choose between her and his father.

"Don't blame her. She didn't want to tell me. I kind of forced her to," Tim said.

"I'm not buying that. No one makes Penny do anything she doesn't want to do," Kate said.

"Kate, why didn't you tell me? I mean, I know why you didn't tell me back then. I was too young to really get the seriousness of it. I would've barely understood what it meant. But why were you going to keep this from me forever?" Tim asked. There was no anger in his voice, just a desire to understand.

"Because you didn't need to know," Kate said before turning away from him.

"Of course I needed to know, Kate. You're my sister. The thought of you being hurt like that by his hands…"

Kate whirled around to face him. "And that's why I didn't want you to know. I don't want you blaming yourself for this!"

"I'm not blaming myself. Yes, it makes me sick to know that my own father is capable of such depravity, but I have a healthy prospective on who's responsible. It's not me and it's not you. If I feel guilty about anything, it's the way I've treated you these last few days," Tim said.

"Don't. You didn't know. You had no way of knowing," Kate said. She didn't want him blaming himself even for that. Anyone would've reacted the same in his position.

Tim felt he could argue that fact since while he couldn't have known exactly what was going on, he should've at least known something was up, but this was not about him and he refused to allow Kate to make it about him. "It doesn't matter at this point. All I care about right now is helping you through this."

"Oh, Tim, it was years ago. I'm over it," Kate lied. Truthfully, she would never be over it. Even after so many years had gone by, she still had a hard time dealing. She even still had nightmares about it sometimes. But she wasn't going to tell her brother that. She needed to be strong for when his shock finally wore off and he broke down from realizing what his father was.

"I don't believe that. I don't believe anybody could ever get over something like that, no matter how many years go by. What he did to you was awful. It's the worst thing that can happen to somebody. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you had to go through that," Tim said.

Kate felt her body start to shake from the memories, but she forced herself to remain in control. "I'm fine. It's you I'm worried about. I think you're still in shock right now. Eventually that will wear off and the realization of what your father did will hit you."

Tim sighed. "Kate…"

"I just want you to know that I'm here for you and…"

"Kate, stop!" Tim exclaimed. "Stop trying to protect me. You can't protect me from this. You shouldn't even be trying. This isn't about me. This is about you. You went through something unimaginable and I want to help you."

"I'm fine," Kate said again. This time her voice betrayed her.

Tim gently put his hands on her shoulders. "You're not fine. That's okay though. Things aren't like they used to be. You don't have to put on a brave face for me anymore."

"Tim," Kate said in a shaky voice. This was all becoming very hard. A part of her wanted to fall into her brother's arms right now and let him comfort her, but she couldn't. That just wasn't the way things were supposed to be with him. She was supposed to protect and comfort him, not the other way around.

"It's okay, Kate. You've always been there for me. For as long as I remember, you've always taken care of me. No matter what I needed, you provided it. I can't even count the number of times you comforted me after the Admiral tore me down. Let me do the same for you now. It is okay for you to lean on me. I want you to," Tim said. He wanted very much now to be able to give Kate what she had given him. He wanted to give her the support and love that she needed. He just wished she would tear those walls down she had built and let him.

That was all it took. Kate finally caved and fell into her brother's arms crying.

Tim wrapped his arms around his sister and held her tightly. "It's alright now, Kate. Everything's okay now."


	12. Chapter 12

Tim woke up early the next morning on Kate's couch. Kate had fallen asleep in his arms the day before. After putting carrying her to bed, he decided to stay. He didn't feel right about leaving his sister alone after all that.

Tim rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock on the cable box on top of the TV. It was eight in the morning. He wasn't surprised that he was up so early. He hadn't slept very well the night before. He had dreams of his father hurting his sister. He'd woken up in the middle of the night from such dreams several times. Luckily, he didn't wake Kate in the process.

Tim sat up and grabbed his phone off the coffee table. He had an hour before he and Kate were supposed to be in the office and he had to call Gibbs. There was no way he could work today and he very much doubted Kate could.

Tim pushed the speed dial number for his boss and held the phone up to his ear.

"_Yeah, McGee, what do you need and why couldn't it wait an hour?" _Gibbs asked.

"Hey, Boss. Listen, I can't make it in today," Tim said.

Gibbs sighed at the other end of the line. _"If you're about to tell me you took your ass to another bar…"_

"No, it's nothing like that, Boss. I just need a personal day. So does Kate," Tim said. Not only were they both still reeling from the emotional roller coaster that was the night before, but they needed to figure out where to go now after being apart for so long.

There was silence on Gibbs' end for a few moments. _"You wanna tell me what's going on, McGee?"_

"No," Tim said in the firmest tone he'd ever used with his boss before. He respected Gibbs more than just about anybody, but this was not something he would discuss with him. He would never betray his sister like that. "Look, Boss, the only thing you need to know right now is that we're dealing with some things and we need today off to do that."

"_Alright. If you need any help, my door's unlocked," _Gibbs said.

"Thanks, Boss," Tim said before hanging up his phone.

Just as Tim hung up the phone, there was a knock at the door. He got up and went to answer it. Normally he wouldn't answer someone else's door, even his own sister's, but he didn't want whoever it was to wake her.

Tim opened the door to find Rachel there. "Hi."

"Hey. I didn't expect to see you here," Rachel said before stepping inside.

"Likewise. It's eight o clock in the morning," Tim said as he closed the door.

"I was hoping to catch Kate before work. I wanted to see how she was doing. Speaking of, shouldn't you be getting to work?" Rachel asked. Her little brother didn't exactly look like he was ready to go to work at a federal agency. In fact, he looked like he just woke up.

"I'm not going in today, neither is Kate. She's still asleep," Tim said.

"Alright, I've obviously missed something," Rachel said. If both her siblings playing hooky wasn't enough, her brother had been acting much more friendly than he had the last time they saw each other.

"No, I was. I was finally clued in though," Tim said.

Rachel's eyes became a bit gloomy. "I see. You took my advice then."

Tim nodded. "I figured I owed her at least that much. I spoke with Penny."

Rachel placed her purse on the table and sat down. She motioned for her brother to do the same. "I'm glad you know. I wanted you to know, but I couldn't be the one to tell you. I promised her I wouldn't."

Tim sat across from his sister. "I have to ask you a question, Rachel. I just have to know."

"The answer is no. He didn't do it to me too," Rachel said, anticipating his question. It was a logical question. If one teenage girl was violated in such a way, chances were her sister was too. It just happened that this time it wasn't like that.

Tim sighed in relief. "Well, I had to ask. You were angry all the time and you drank a lot."

"I was angry and drank because I lived with a man I hated. No other reason," Rachel said.

Tim nodded. "That bastard screwed us all up in one way or another."

"And I took it out on you for a long time. I know I said it before, but I'm going to say it again. I am sorry. I took my anger at him out on you and it wasn't fair," Rachel said.

"Well, a lot of things weren't fair back then. It wasn't fair that I had a father who didn't give a damn about me, it wasn't fair that you and Kate lost both your parents and had to live with a man you despised, and it certainly wasn't fair that Kate got raped. We didn't live fair lives," Tim said.

"Which is why we didn't need to be turning on each other. The three of us should've stuck together, but I turned my back on you. I was there for Kate to a certain extent, but never for you," Rachel said guiltily.

"Yeah, you were. You were there that day I needed you," Tim said. It was true that his oldest sister hadn't been there for him for most of his life, but that changed the day his father crossed a line. He didn't remember what his father was so angry about, but he remembered that the man was screaming louder than he ever had before. The man had then reached out and backhanded him. Rachel had walked in on it and stepped in to protect him.

Rachel remembered that day well. It was a wakeup call for her. Before that moment, despite evidence of the contrary, she saw Tim as nothing more than an extension of his father. That changed the moment she saw her stepfather strike him. After that moment, all she saw was a little boy who was just as much a victim as her and her sister. "Okay, now it's my turn to ask a question. Did he ever do it again?"

"No. No, he never physically harmed me again. But he had other methods, as I'm sure you know," Tim said.

Rachel nodded. "You should probably know that I still haven't told Kate about that incident."

"That's probably a good thing," Tim said. His sister would've gone postal if she knew his father hit him even once. She definitely wouldn't have allowed him to continue under the Admiral's roof alone. If she'd learned after she left, she would've come back immediately. For that reason alone, he was glad she never knew. He couldn't even stand the idea of his sister being stuck with the man that hurt her because of him.

"I think maybe she should know now though," Rachel said.

"Why? It was twenty-five years ago," Tim said.

"What happened to Kate was nearly as long," Rachel pointed out.

"That's different. One slap didn't profoundly affect me," Tim said. He had become much more wary of his father after that moment, but it was hardly the same thing as being raped.

"But she'd want to know just like you wanted to know about her. I think that we should all take this as an opportunity to start over. To do that, we have to resolve any issues with the past. We can't forget them, but we can try to move on from them. For that, we need to put any secrets we may have on the table. It's the only way for any of us to truly be free," Rachel explained.

Tim raised an eyebrow. "Are you our sister or our shrink?"

Rachel smirked. "I guess you could say I'm both. I am a psychiatrist."

"Of course you are. Okay, I'll tell her. It's not that big of a deal compared to all the other crap we all went through as children," Tim said.

"Okay, I'm gonna step outside for a minute and cancel all my appointments for the day. I think you had the right idea by calling in. It's time for us to finally come together and face things as a family," Rachel said before standing up, grabbing her purse and heading out of the apartment.


	13. Chapter 13

Kate woke up to find herself in her bed. That fact alone wasn't surprising, but the fact that she was fully dressed and didn't remember how she got there was. She didn't even remember going to bed the night before.

Suddenly the previous night's events came flooding back to Kate. She remembered Tim coming over and the two of them talking about what happened to her when they were young. Then she broke down in his arms.

Kate sighed. She was irritated with herself for letting Tim see her like that. He was never supposed to see that. Tim was her baby brother. She was supposed to be strong for him. She was supposed to be the one that held things together so that he could fall apart if need be.

Kate looked over at the clock and her eyes widened. It was ten in the morning. She was an hour late for work. Gibbs was going to kill her. She hadn't worked with Gibbs long, but she knew he was a hard boss and being an hour and a half late her first week was not a good way to impress him.

Kate jumped up and practically leaped out of the room. Once she did, she heard voices. She immediately headed towards them. She got to the dining room to find both her siblings sitting at the table. "Tim, have you been here all night? Why didn't you wake me up?"

Tim turned at the sound of his sister's voice. "Hey. I didn't wake you up because that would've that would've been that would've been a very jackass little brother move."

"No, not waking me up was that. Wait, why are you still here? You're late too," Kate said.

"I'm not late and neither are you. I called us both in," Tim told her.

"Why would you do that?" Kate asked. She was a little upset because her brother had most likely lied to Gibbs to cover for her and if he ever found out, he'd be pissed. He had spoken to her just before she left yesterday and made his displeasure for her lying for Tim very clear.

"Because after last night, I didn't think either of us would be able to concentrate on work," Tim said.

"You should've let me make that choice, Tim. I don't want you lying to Gibbs for me," Kate said.

Tim chuckled. "Oh, please, like I could lie to Gibbs. That's like thinking you can break a brick wall with your body. I can't lie to normal people, let alone Gibbs. And by the way, you lied for me."

"You were hung over. There was no way you'd make it through a day of work. I was looking out for you. That's my job," Kate said before going into the kitchen. She reached up to the cabinet on the left of the sink and pulled down a coffee cup.

Tim laughed. "Okay, so let me get this straight. You can lie to our boss to protect me, but I can't do the same for you."

"Essentially, yes," Kate said matter-of-factly before poured herself a cup of coffee. Her brother or sister must have made it not too long ago because it was still hot.

"Okay, that's gotta be the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Tim said while laughing.

"Give it up now, baby brother. You won't win that one," Rachel said with amusement in her voice.

"So if you didn't lie to Gibbs, what did you say?" Kate asked as she joined them at the table. She took a seat at the head of the table in front of both of her siblings.

"I just said we needed a personal day to deal with some things," Tim said.

Kate raised an eyebrow. "And that was it?"

Tim nodded. "Look, Gibbs can be a hard ass, but if you have an issue, he's there for you. He'll listen if you need him to or he'll leave you alone if you need him to."

"Good to know," Kate said before taking a sip of her coffee. She then turned to her sister. "What are you doing here? Don't you have like a dozen or so patients to see?"

"I cancelled all my appointments for the day," Rachel said.

Kate looked back and forth between her brother and sister. "Is this some kind of strange intervention?"

Tim and Rachel both laughed. "No. It's just that so much time has gone by since the three of us have really been a family. Tim and I just thought that we all needed to take some time to figure out move forward," Rachel explained.

Kate nodded after a minute. She could see the logic in that. While they were family and they loved each other, they couldn't just go back and pretend the last two and a half decades never happened. They had to deal with it. "Yeah, I can see your point there."

"Okay, well, I'll start. I think that for us to move forward, we have to make a pact right now. No more secrets. Kate, I know that you didn't want Tim to know what happened to you, but he needed to know, and there's something you need to know," Rachel said.

"What?" Kate asked with a slight frown. Whatever this was, she didn't think it could be good.

Tim sighed. "I still say this is unnecessary. It was so long ago and it only affected me for maybe a few days." Okay, so that wasn't exactly true. It was more like a few weeks or a few months, but he did eventually get over it. It wasn't like he was beaten on a daily basis.

"Okay, what the hell is going on?" Kate demanded to know.

"Do you remember that time you visited our grandparents for the summer? Dad's parents?" Rachel asked.

Kate easily remembered the time because it was the only time she'd been forced to go for the entire summer. It was the longest summer of her life. She'd loved her grandparents dearly, but she'd had to leave her brother at home with just Rachel to look out for him, and at the time, Rachel hadn't really been fond of Tim. Actually, it was that summer that they got closer. "Yeah, I remember. The Admiral couldn't make you go because you had to go to summer school to get up your math grade, but he made me leave for the whole summer."

Rachel nodded. "You asked me to look out for Tim. I hate to say that I didn't really take that seriously at first. But something happened to make me take it more seriously."

"What happened?" Kate asked in trepidation.

"It's not a big deal, Kate," Tim said. He wanted to try to keep his sister from overreacting, but he doubted it would work very well."

"What happened?" Kate asked again with more force.

Tim sighed. "The Admiral was angry with me. I don't remember why he was mad. It happened so frequently that I don't remember every little thing I did to piss him off. Anyway, after I got done screaming, he backhanded me."

"He hit you?" Kate asked in a deadly quiet voice. Oh, she was pissed. The Admiral messing with her, even raping her, was one thing, but _nobody_ touched her little brother. "I'll kill him."

"Kate, it's okay. No permanent damage was done," Tim said in a futile attempt to diffuse the situation.

"Why the hell didn't either of you tell me about this?" Kate asked angrily.

"I told Tim not to. I knew how you'd react if you knew and I didn't want to start another battle between you and the Admiral. It wouldn't have helped anything," Rachel said.

Kate glared at her sister for a minute before turning to her brother. "How many times?"

"Just that once," Tim said.

"Don't lie to me," Kate warned. She couldn't know if he was lying or not, but just in case he was, she was going to say it.

"What part of 'I can't lie' didn't you understand? I'm not lying, Kate. That was the only time he ever physically struck me," Tim said honestly.

Kate turned back to Rachel. "This is why things had changed so much when I got back, isn't it? Before then, you barely tolerated Tim. You saw him as an extension of the Admiral. That changed when I got back. You cared more about him and actually spent time with him. This is why."

Rachel nodded.

"You should've told me. I had a right to know. And you certainly shouldn't have asked him to keep it from me," Kate said. She should've known this. If she had, she never would've left. Penny be damned, she would've found a way to stay with her brother.

"I'm sorry to have to say this, Kate, but I'm glad I didn't tell you. If I had, you never would've left. And I'm sorry, Tim, but I'm glad that happened," Rachel said. She hated that they had to leave their brother, but Kate could not live in that house any longer.

"It's okay. I agree with you," Tim said. He never thought he would say that, but it was true. Yes, his life had gotten significantly worse after Kate and Rachel left, but it was nothing compared to what Kate went through.

Kate sighed. "Is there anything else I should know?"

"No," Rachel said.

Tim reluctantly shook his head. There was something that he knew both his sisters would want to know, but he couldn't tell them. They would be pissed and might even blame themselves. Besides, it was over. There was no use dredging it up now.

"So no more secrets, right? We start fresh. Deal?" Rachel asked.

"Deal," Kate said.

Tim felt a twinge of guilt, but he pushed it down. "Deal."


	14. Chapter 14

Tim walked into the bullpen the next morning and found Tony at his desk. "Morning, Tony."

"Hey, Tim. "Where were you yesterday? You didn't go to another bar the night before, did you?" Tony asked.

Tim rolled his eyes. "No. Why do people keep asking me that. Gibbs asked me the same thing when I called out."

"Well, you and Kate were both out so I figured you got drunk and Kate decided to stay with you," Tony said.

"Well, you were wrong. I was with Kate and our other sister, but we were just working through some things," Tim said.

"Wait, so you guys are talking now?" Tony asked surprised. The last he knew, Tim and Kate were still estranged. Tim had been so angry and hurt a couple of days ago that he got uncharacteristically drunk. He wanted nothing to do with Kate. That had obviously changed.

"Yeah, we're talking, Tim said without elaborating.

Tony waited for him to go on, but he didn't. "That's it? That's all you're gonna give me?"

"Why do I have to give you anything? It's none of your business," Tim said.

"I'm just curious here. One day you want nothing to do with your sisters and the next you're taking the day off to talk to them," Tony said. It just didn't make any sense, not unless something major happened.

"We'll, that's how siblings are. We fight like hell one minute and we support each other the next. At the end of the day, they're still my sisters. It's as simple as that," Tim said. While it was true that he had been angry at Kate and Rachel for a long time, he still loved them. He wouldn't have been so hurt and angry if he hadn't.

"Oh, come on, Tim don't give me that. Something else is going on here," Tony said.

"Back off, Tony," Tim said in a hard tone.

Just then, Kate walked through the bullpen towards her desk. Morning,Tony, baby brother."

Tim groaned. "Must you call me that in public?"

"I could always call you what I did when you were a child," Kate said with a smirk.

Tim's eyes widened in horror. "Don't you dare!"

This was normally where Tony would try to squeeze out the obvious embarrassing information, but he was too baffled by the scene in front of him. It was like Tim had done a complete one eighty."

Kate noticed the shocked look on Tony's face and smirked. "Baby brother, I think we broke him."

Tim smiled. I think you're right, Kate," Tim said.

Just then, Tim's phone rang. He immediately picked it up. "McGee. Hey, Penny."

Kate scowled slightly when she heard who her brother was talking to. She still wasn't happy that the woman had outed her to Tim. It had alright so far, but she still hadn't wanted him to know. Penny had no right to tell him.

"No, you're not interrupting anything important. I just got to work. Lunch? "Yeah, okay, as long as no cases come up. Okay, I'll see you then," Tim said before hanging up the phone.

"She wants to see you?" Kate asked.

"Yeah, I kind of left her hanging the other night. She probably just wants to make sure everything is okay," Tim said.

"I'm coming with you," Kate said. She had a few choice words for her brother's grandmother.

Tim groaned. "Kate."

"I'm going, Tim," Kate said firmly

Tim sighed. "Fine."

"Wait, is his grandmother yours too?" Tony asked curiously.

"No," Kate said simply.

"She's my father's mother," Tim said.

"Yeah, McDuh, I got that when she said no," Tony said sarcastically.

Kate narrowed her eyes at Tony. "What did you just call my brother?" It wasn't a bad insult. Hell, it wasn't really an insult at all, but if this was any indicator, he'd probably said much worse. She was not going to let it slide.

"Kate, it's fine. He's just messing around. Besides, he's said worse. And that probably wasn't the thing to say," Tim realized too late. Kate had always been very protective over him. Some might say overly so, but then those some didn't have to live with the Admiral.

"Overprotectiveness doesn't suit you, Kate. Been gone a bit too long, haven't you?" Tony asked bitingly.

"Tony!" Tim exclaimed.

"Oh. Tim, take a walk," Kate said, her eyes never leaving Tony's.

"Are you crazy? I'm not going anywhere," Tim said. The things they we're saying in front of him were bad enough. He didn't want to know what would happen if he left. He wasn't sure which one he was more worried for. He didn't want Tony giving his sister a hard time about the past and remind her about what happened to her. On the other hand, Kate had experience dealing with guys like Tony long before she joined any kind of law enforcement agency. He still. remembered what was left of one of the older boys on base who'd bullied him after Kate was done with him. She would eat Tony alive.

Kate gave her brother a look that would give Gibbs a run for his money.

Tim winced. He hadn't been on the receiving end of that look since he was a child. Somehow it still got to him. "This is ridiculous, so ridiculous in that I need to leave so I don't have to deal with it." Yes, he was lying to himself to make it seem like he had a choice,

Kate chuckled. "Yeah, that's why."

Tim scowled before getting up and walking towards the elevator.

Kate glared at Tony. "Okay, Tony, time to get all our cards on the table."

"Fine. How about you tell me what you did to him? How'd you get Tim to forgive you for leaving him?" Tony asked with a glare.

"That's none of your damn business. My relationship with my brother is between us and no one else," Kate said firmly.

"Oh, but it's okay for you to question the things I say to him?" Tony said. That had to be one of the most hypocritical things he'd ever heard.

"Yeah, you're damn right it is. That is my baby brother. I have made it my life's mission to protect him. That's not going to change because he's aged. He's still mine and I will still look out for him," Kate said firmly. She'd never let anyone take advantage of her brother or treat him less than he deserved and she'd be damned if that started now.

"And who's gonna protect him from you? I'm not the reason he got wasted a few days ago," Tony shot back.

Kate fought the guilt that threatened to take over. "Tony, I very grateful that you were there for my brother that night, but that doesn't mean that you get to question our relationship, and it certainly doesn't mean I'll let you make fun of him."

"It was a joke!" Tony exclaimed. "It was't even a real insult,"

"I don't care. I don't find jokes at my brother's expense funny. Now, I don't know how you treated him before now and you should pray I never find out, but it ends now. You don't want to find out what I do to people who hurt him," Kate said before standing up from her desk and walking away.


	15. Chapter 15

Tim went to see Abby after leaving the bullpen. He found her in the lab dancing to her blaring music. "Abby!"

Abby immediately stopped and turned ay the sound of her name. When she saw who it was, she turned down her music And ran into Tim's arms. "Timmy, you're back!"

Tim chuckled. "Well, it's not like I went far. I was only gone a day."

Abby pulled away after a minute. "Yeah, but you were also gone for a day a few days ago too. I was starting to get worried. I asked Gibbs what was going on, but he wouldn't tell me."

"It's nothing, Abby. I just had some things I had to work out," Tim said. Okay, so it wasn't nothing, but it wasn't something he was going to share with Abby. This was Kate'a secret. Only she could decide who got to know what happened to her.

"Does this have anything to do with Kate? Word is that the two of you are related," Abby said

Tim chuckled. "We'll, word is right. We are related. Kate's my sister."

Abby put her hands on her hips. "You didn't tell me you had a sister, McGee."

"I didn't tell anybody. It was a complicated situation," Tim said.

"It's not complicated anymore?" Baby asked, picking up on the past tense he used.

"More like my eyes were opened. They shouldn't have needed to be though. The gist of it is something I always should've known," Tim said. While there was no way he could've known exactly what happened to Kate, he should've had enough faith in her to know that she would never leave him for no reason.

"Wow, that's quite the statement. You wanna talk about it?" Abby asked.

"Nothing to talk about. I made a mistake. I misjudged my sister. I'm just glad she's not holding it against me," Tim said.

"Wow, she really means a lot to you, doesn't she?" Abby asked.

"She was everything to me as a child. My mom died when I was five. I barely even remember her. Kate basically picked up where she left off. She took care of me."

"Your dad wasn't around?" Abby asked. That didn't make sense to her. McGee didn't talk about his father often, but did mention him once and a while.

Tim fought the blinding rage that threatened to take over at the mention of his father. "He was there. We just wished he wasn't. He left a lot to be a desired. Anyway, it doesn't matter anymore. The Admiral is no longer a part of my life and I prefer it that way. I have all the family that matters now."

"Don't you think it's gonna be weird working with your sister though, especially if she was more like your mom?" Abby asked.

"Oh, it has already been interesting. I'm down here because Kate and Tony are going at it over. Tony made another joke about my name again," Tim said.

"Yeah, but that's just Tony. He's just messing around," Abby said.

"I know that and you know that, but Kate doesn't. She barely knows Tony. Seeing someone make fum of me in any way, shape, or form is not something Kate will put up with. It's just not in her nature. She's extremely overprotective, there was a time when I really needed that," Tim said. with his father and all the little jerks that liked to mess with him as a child, he'd needed Kate's fierce protectiveness.

"But you're not a kid anymore. Just tell her to back off," Abby said.

"Yeah, right after you tell Gibbs to back off. Gibbs was about as protective of Abby as Kate was of him. Neither was going to stop anytime soon.

"That's different. He's Gibbs," Abby said as if it said it all,

"And she's Kate. That means almost the same to me as Gibbs being Gibbs means to you. The only real difference is that Kate's not quite as intimidating. Anyway, I better head back before Gibbs comes looking. I'll see you later," Tim said before walking out of the lab.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A few hours later, Tim and Kate were sitting in a diner waiting for Penny. "Okay, listen, will you please take it easy on her. I told you I didn't give her a choice about telling me," Tim said.

"And I told you I don't believe that," Kate said as she looked at her menu.

Tim sighed. "Would you really rather I still be ignorant and at your throat?"

Before Kate could answer, they both spotted Penny coming there way.

Penny was surprised to see her grandson's sister with him when she got to the diner, but she quickly for past it. Timothy's inquiries had made it clear that his sister was back in his life, and Penny knew Caitlin would not be happy when she learned Timothy knew the truth. "Timothy, thank you for coming. Hello, Caitlin."

"Penny," Kate said tightly.

Penny sat in a chair to the side of both of them.

Just then, the waitress came over to take their orders. They all ordered and then watched as the woman left.

"I was worried about you after the other night, Timothy. I wanted to make sure you were alright," Penny said.

"Well, if he's not okay, whose fault is that?" Kate asked angrily.

"Kate," Tim said with a sigh.

"It's alright, Timothy. Caitlin has every right to be upset. I made a promise to her and I broke it," Penny said.

"It was a promise that needed to be broken. I needed to know," Tim said. Okay, so he was being super hypocritical right now since he had his own secret that he had no intention of ever telling Kate, but he really did need to know.

"it wasn't her call. You had no right disclosing my secret to anyone, not even Tim," Kate said in a hard tone.

"You never would've told me. I found somebody who would and I practically had to pull it out of her. Look, it worked out. Can't you just realIze that and let this go?" Tim asked,

"Caitlin, I'm sorry, but Timothy's right. He needed to know. Not just for you, but for himself. The idea of you leaving on your own was tearing him apart," Penny said.

"Penny, stop," Tim said. He didn't want her doing this. He didn't want anything Kate had been through made about him.

Kate sighed. "I know it hurt him. I never wanted him to think that. I just thought the truth would be worse."

"Kate, I'm not going to lie to you. The truth had affected me. How could it not? But it's not gonna break me. And frankly it disturbs me to know that you're more worried about my pain," Tim said,

"It's my job. First and foremost, I look out for you. That will never change, baby brother," Kate said firmly.

"That's not fair to you," Tim said. His sister shouldn't have to spend her entire life trying to protect him.

"On the contrary, baby brother, I find it very fair. I wouldn't have it any other way," Kate said. Taking care of Tim was never an obligation. Yes, she considered it her job, but it was a job she loved. He was the only good thing to come out of her father's second marriage.

Penny smiled. She always loved seeing the relationship between these two. She was glad it was back. Her grandson had never been the same since Caitlin left. "Caitlin, you two are in a good place now. That wouldn't have never happened if Timothy didn't learn the truth. So I am glad I told him. It eased both your pain."

Kate sighed. "I guess you're right. That doesn't mean I don't wish he didn't have to know though. But it's better this way. Now there are more secrets.

Tim felt a twinge of guilt, knowing full well that was not true.


	16. Chapter 16

Tim walked into the bullpen with Kate. It had been about three months since Kate and Rachel came back into his life. In that time, the three of them had wasted no time in restoring their bond. Or in his and Rachel's case, form a real bond.

"So how was your weekend?" Kate asked her brother.

"It was good. Delilah and I went out for dinner Saturday," Tim said with a smile.

"Good for you. You make sure to tell her though that if she even things about hurting you, your big sister's gonna kick her ass," Kate said.

Tim rolled his eyes. "What about you? What'd you do this weekend?"

"Oh, it was kinda boring. I spent most of it reading," Kate said as the two of them made their way to their desks.

"Boring can be good considering our line of work. Morning, Tony," Tim said.

"Hey, Tim. Kate," Tony greeted. He greeted Kate a little colder than Tim. He didn't really like Kate much even three months later. Kate had abandoned Tim when she needed him. Tim might have forgiven his sister for some reason that Tony still didn't know, but Tony wasn't so forgiving. He'd seen what Tim had resorted to when Kate first came back.

"Tony," Kate said just as tightly. She didn't have a problem with Tony as long as he didn't mess with her brother. Other than that, the only problem she had with him was the fact that he had a problem with her. He seemed to think he had the right to judge her for leaving. In her mind, he had no right. He didn't know her or Tim back then. He had no right to judge her.

"Tony, how many times do I have to tell you to back off?" Tim asked. He really appreciated Tony's support, but he didn't need him making Kate feel guilty for leaving. She had no choice. Staying would've put her in danger of being assaulted again.

"Hey, I was just greeting her like a good colleague should," Tony said with his hands raised in surrender.

Tim shook his head. He decided he might as well drop it for now. "So how was your weekend?"

Tony smiled. "Oh, it was awesome. I met this smokin' hot woman at the bar Friday night. We hit off great.

Tim grinned. "Well, it's nice to see you getting back out there." He never thought he'd be happy to hear about Tony and a woman, but the man had pretty much taking a break from dating since Ziva left. It was nice to see him finally start to move on.

"He's getting back out there again," Gibbs said as he strode past them to his desk. "We've got a dead Navy commander. Grab your gear."

All three of them grabbed their packs and went with Gibbs to the elevator.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

About an hour later, Tim was taking photos of their victim at the crime scene. The man had taken a bullet to the head.

Once he was done taking pictures, Tim searched the body for ID. He found what he was looking for quickly.

"What do you got McGee?" Gibbs asked from behind his agent.

Tim immediately turned to the man. "Commander William Martin."

"Alright, go help Tony bag and tag," Gibbs ordered.

"On, it Boss," Tim said before heading towards Tony, passing Ducky and Jimmy on the way.

"There doesn't seem to be much to find here," Tony said as searching the area for crews.

"Yeah, it looks like the killer took him out with that single shot," Tim said.

Kate soon made her way over. "Well, the witness didn't know anything. He found the body while walking his dog. He didn't hear or see anything."

"Not surprising," Tim said.

Meanwhile, Gibbs was standing over Ducky and Jimmy who were examining body. "What do you got for me, Duck?"

"Jethro, I've barely had the chance to examine the man. However, I do notice patters of dirt and grass on the man's pants at about his knee," Ducky said.

"Suggesting he was made to kneel," Gibbs realized.

Ducky nodded.

"Alright, thanks, Duck. See if you can't get me TOD soon," Gibbs said before walking away.

Xxxxxxxxxx

Gibbs walked through the bullpen with a cup of coffee in his hands. "Someone tell me something."

"Commander Martin was on Leave, Gibbs. In fact, he just got back from Iraq today," Kate said.

"I'm going through his phone records now, Boss, but so far nothing out of the ordinary," Tim said.

"DiNozzo."

"I managed to find one of his subordinates that is also off duty. Petty Officer Robert Logan," Tony said.

"Go. Take Kate with you," Gibbs ordered.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Tony and Kate sat in a well-furnished living room with Petty Officer Logan. "So what was your relationship with Commander Martin," Kate asked.

"He was my commanding officer. That's about as far as it went," he said.

"You don't seem to broken up about his death," Tony commented.

The Petty Officer sighed. "Look, no one was all that fond of Martin. We all hated his guts. He was an asshole. He acted like was better than all of us. Like the rest of us were just dirt on the bottom of his shoe and we should be grateful to be in his presence.

"I know the type," Kate said. If she didn't know any better, she'd say this guy was describing her stepfather. That was exactly how the Admiral acted all the time.

"Well, if that's not a motive for murder, I don't know what is," Tony said.

"Well, if it makes me a suspect, it makes nearly everyone who knew him a suspect," Petty Officer Logan retorted.

"Was there anyone who disliked him more the rest?" Kate asked

"Not that come to mind. A lot of people hated his guts. Even a lot of those of his rank and above didn't like him," the Petty Officer said.

Kate and Tony stood up. "Well, thank you for your time, Petty Officer," Kate said before leading the way towards the door.

"Well, that was positive pointless," Tony said.

"I wouldn't say that. We just gained a plethora of suspects. It's better than the none we had before," Kate said.

"Yeah, I guess. I'll call Tim on the way back. Get him to get us a list of everyone the Commander worked with on a daily basis," Tony said as he got into the car.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

When Tony and Kate got back, Tim was on the phone with the naval base Commander Martin had been with before he went on Leave.

"You get that list yet, Tim?" Tony asked.

Tim put his hand on the mouth part of the receiver. "Tony, you called me ten minutes ago. Of course I don't have the list yet."

"Well, you better hurry. We all know Gibbs won't like that answer. Anyway, I'm going to the head. I'll be back," Tony said before walking away.

Tim took his hand away and began speaking into the phone. "Yes, I'm with NCIS. I calling in regards to the murder of Commander William Martin. I need a list of everyone he worked with on a daily basis. Yes, my name is Special Agent McGee. Yes, I said McGee. Unfortunately. Now please send me that list," he said before hanging up.

"What's unfortunate?" Kate asked.

"'McGee you said? Are you related to Admiral McGee?'," Tim replayed.

"Ah, unfortunate," Kate said before her phone started ringing. "Agent Todd. What? Yeah, we'll be right there."

"What's up?" Tim asked.

Kate looked at her brother after hanging up the phone. "We've got another body.


	17. Chapter 17

The team was gathered at their second crime scene. They were all watching as Ducky examined the body. "It seems the same as the last one, Jethro. Our poor sailor took a single shot to the head and there are dirt patters consistent with kneeling."

"Same killer," Gibbs said. "ID,"

Tim held up the man's ID that he'd collected from his wallet. "Petty Officer James Collins. Twenty-five years old."

"This is looking like a serial killing," Kate said.

"We're not going there yet, Kate," Gibbs said firmly.

"Either way, I'd guess both these men probably knew each other," Tim said. Two agents being killed so close together the exact same way and not knowing each other was too big of a coincidence.

"Yeah, I'd say you're right about that, McGee. Kate, you and Tony are going to his place to see if you can find anything," Gibbs said.

Tim handed Collins' ID to his sister so that she could see his address.

"According to this, he was stationed and lived on a base in Norfolk. What was he doing here?" Kate wondered.

"That's what you need to find out. McGee, you head back to the office and keep working on finding the other members of Martin's unit. Find Collins' too if they're different," Gibbs ordered.

McGee nodded and walked away.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

A few hours later, Tony and Kate walked into Collins' house on base. "Nice job with the Commander, Kate," Tony said. The sailors didn't want to let them see Collins' living space. They'd gotten their commander who also didn't want to allow it. Kate had pulled him aside to talk to him. Minutes later, they were being shown the house.

"I grew up around places like this. Eventually, you pick up a thing or two on how to get what you want from the sailors," Kate said.

"Right. I almost forgot, you were a navy brat," Tony said.

"I wasn't technically. That term is usually reserved for the children of naval officers. I thankfully wasn't. I lived with one, but that was about it," Kate said.

"Didn't like these places, huh?" Tony asked as he began looking around on the table by the door.

"It wasn't the place, it was the company," Kate said as she moved across the room to the living room and started looking on the coffee table.

"You must have really hated your stepfather," Tony said.

Kate stopped what she was doing and sighed. "There is no bigger asshole in this world than John McGee. He treated his men like crap and he treated his family even worse. I remember the things he used to call my mother."

"Why'd she stay then?" Tony wondered.

"Uh, I don't know, three kids and no way to support them on her own?" Kate asked sarcastically. "It wouldn't have mattered much if she left him or not though. She died when Tim was five. He would've gone back to his father. My sister and I wouldn't because we wouldn't be his responsibility if they were divorced, but Tim would be stuck there alone. For that reason, I'm glad she never left him."

"Right," Tony said. He sounded like he wanted to say more, but he decided not to.

"If you've got something to say, DiNozzo, just say it," Kate said. She wasn't going to take his snide remarks right now. If he wanted to say something to her then he needed to come out with it.

Tony looked at Kate and shook his head. "I just don't get you, Kate. You talk about how much you love your brother, but to me it's a croc."

Kate crossed the room back over to Tony and glared at him. "Don't you dare think you can question my love for my brother! There is no one in this world that I love more than him!"

"You don't leave the people you love, Kate. Now somehow you managed to convince him to forgive you. How, I don't know, but you managed it. That doesn't mean that I don't see through you. You left your brother alone with a man you despised. A man you said yourself treated his family like crap. You don't do that to people you love," Tony said.

Kate felt guilt well up, but she refused to let Tony see it. "You have no idea what you're talking about."

"So tell me then. What's your great reason for leaving your brother alone?" Tony asked.

"It's none of your business!" Kate yelled.

"The hell it's not! Tim's my friend! I was there when he fell apart over you coming back!" Tony yelled back.

"And I told you that I was grateful for that, but that doesn't give the right to know everything about our family," Kate said. She hadn't even told Tim her secret willingly. She certainly wasn't going to tell a guy she'd known all of three months.

Tony shook his head in disgust. "Whatever. Just know that I'm not going to let you hurt him again."

Kate glared at him for another minute before going back to what she was doing. She finished searching the table and then went over to the phone. She saw that there were a couple of messages on the machine and pressed the button.

"_Collins, it's Commander Martin. Answer the God damned phone at once, Petty officer. We've got problems! The Admiral's worried! Call me back!" _a loud, angry voice spoke.

Tony immediately came over. "Well, that doesn't sound good.

There was a beep and then another voice was heard. _"James, it's Robert. You've gotta call me back. NCIS just left my place. Commander Martin is dead. This can't be a coincidence. Call me."_

Tony and Kate looked at each other in shock. "That was Petty Officer Logan," Kate said.

Tony nodded. "And it seems he's been holding out on us."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Tim was at his desk on the phone once more. He was extremely irritated. He still hadn't received the information he'd requested from the Navy. "Look, two of your sailors are dead and I still haven't received the information I requested this morning! Then find me someone who can authorize the information!"

Tim sighed as he was put on hold and turned to Gibbs who had just entered the area. "Boss, I'm on hold with the Navy. Apparently there's some kind of issue with sending us the information."

"Did they forget how to use a fax machine?" Gibbs asked sarcastically.

"Apparently there's some kind of authorization problem. Yes, I'm still here?" Tim said into the phone. "Yeah, fine, but him through."

"What's up?" Gibbs asked.

"They're putting the admiral of the base on," Tim said.

"For some records?" Gibbs asked. That seemed kind of excessive. This was not the type of thing that required an admiral's attention.

"I guess so," Tim said.

Soon, a gruff voice filled Tim's ear. _"Hello, Timothy."_

Tim froze at the voice he heard. He knew that voice very well. He wished he didn't, but he did. "D…Dad."


	18. Chapter 18

Tim just sat there frozen in shock for a moment. He never expected his father to have been stationed with Commander Martin. Yes, when he called earlier, he'd received a question about the man, but he just assumed the sailor he spoke to had heard of the man. A lot of people in the navy knew who his father was.

Tim was pulled from his thoughts by the hard voice of his father. _"Well, Timothy, I'm waiting. Tell me why you're harassing my people!"_

Tim clutched the phone so tightly that he was surprised it didn't break. His father was once again spouting out orders and expecting them to be followed. Well, that wasn't going to happen this time. He was not a child anymore. What he was, was a brother whose sister was violated by this man. Tim would never speak to him with anything but contempt again. "I don't know, Dad. Could it be because we've got two dead sailors and your people are circumventing our case?"

"_You watch your tone with me, Timothy,"_ John said angrily.

Tim started to shake with rage. "Go to hell!"

Gibbs finally stood up and approached Tim's desk. He'd heard the conversation from Tim's side and decided to stay quiet, but he could see his agent was quickly losing control of his temper and knew an intervention would soon be necessary.

"_What did you say to me, boy?!" _John's voice boomed.

As a child, Tim would've immediately backed off. He had been very intimidated by his father as a boy and sought nothing but his approval. But again, Tim was not a child anymore and he wanted nothing from the man except to maybe use him for target practice. "I said, go to hell, old man. Would you like me to spell it out for you?"

Gibbs reached over and took the phone from his agent. He then pressed it to his ear. "Admiral McGee."

"_Who the hell is this? Put my bastard of a son back on!" _John demanded.

"The name's Special Agent Gibbs and that's not gonna happen. You deal with me now. Now I've got two dead naval officers who both worked on your ship. I need the names of everyone else they worked with," Gibbs said. Alright, so he didn't know for sure that Martin and Collins were a part of the same unit, but his gut told him they were.

"_I'm afraid that's not possible, Agent Gibbs," _John said.

"The hell you can't, Admiral! You will give me that information and you'll do it now!" Gibbs yelled.

"_Agent Gibbs, I'm a navy admiral. I won't be spoken to like that! Now, I can't give you those names. It could jeopardize all of their lives," _John said.

"Why's that, Admiral?" Gibbs asked sounding more than a little impatient. He'd barely been on the phone for two minutes and he already disliked the man.

"_I'm not going to answer that either. It's classified information that doesn't concern a pencil pusher like you," _John said condescendingly.

Gibbs' voice grew as cold as ice. "You listen to me, you egotistical bastard. You are gonna give me this information or I will haul your ass into interrogation faster than you can blink!"

Tim's eyes widened. He'd never heard anyone other than Kate speak to his father like that. There were many times when he heard her do battle with him when they were children, but it was a little different having it happen in a professional setting.

"_I don't respond to intimidation, Gibbs."_

"We'll see about that," Gibbs said before hanging up the phone. "With me, McGee."

"Where we going, Boss?" Tim asked.

"MTAC," Gibbs said as he led the way.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Ten minutes later, Gibbs and Tim were in MTAC speaking with SecNav apprising him of the situation with the Admiral. Vance had the day off, so he had to contact the man himself.

"You want to have Admiral McGee brought in for interrogation when you have no evidence that he had anything to do with the murders?" SecNav asked as though it were absurd.

"That's exactly what I want, Sir. Admiral McGee has information about these murders he's not saying. Not only that, but he's withholding evidence that could lead to the killer," Gibbs said. He was gonna make good on his threat. McGee Senior was going to learn he didn't make empty threats. Besides, he'd been wanting to have a go at Tim's father for a while now.

"Surely there is another way to get the information you need. Agent McGee here perhaps," he said.

"That's a waste of time, Sir. He doesn't listen to a word I say. Not that I want to talk to him. Don't really wanna see him either though," Tim said mumbling the last part. He really didn't want his father brought there. He didn't want to see him, more importantly though, he didn't want Kate to have to see him. She'd dealt with enough from the man.

"As you can see, Sir, we don't have much choice here. We need to know what McGee knows," Gibbs said.

"_Alright. I'll 'encourage' Admiral McGee to come to DC," _SecNav said.

"Thank you, Sir," Gibbs said before motioning to have the connection severed. He then turned to Tim. "You gonna be alright, McGee?"

"He doesn't affect me anymore, Boss. It's not me I'm worried about," Tim said. He was worried about Kate. She shouldn't have to go through what she was about to. She shouldn't have to be forced into such close proximities with her rapist. It wasn't fair.

"She can take care of herself, McGee," Gibbs said. He knew the man was worried about Kate. Tim's attitude towards his father had changed after Kate returned to his life. He'd been estranged from his father before, but the blinding hatred hadn't started until recently. McGee had obviously learned something.

"I know that, Boss. She's always taken care of herself and me no matter what." _'Except for the one time she couldn't,' _Tim added to himself. He knew that that wouldn't happen again of course. Kate was no longer a teenage girl that couldn't fight her stepfather. She was a capable agent that once protected the president. He wouldn't hurt her again, not physically anyway. It was the other ways of causing pain that Tim was afraid of. His father's mere presence could cause seriously painful memories for his sister. He didn't want that.

"Then trust her to do it now," Gibbs said.

"She shouldn't have to," Tim said.

"She'll be fine. If the last three months are any indication, she'll be more worried about you than herself," Gibbs said.

"Yeah. I have to make a phone call. My other sister needs to know about this new development," Tim said before heading up the stairs towards the exit.


	19. Chapter 19

Gibbs made his way to Autopsy and found Ducky there finishing up on Collins' autopsy. "Hey, Duck."

"Ah, Jethro, I knew I'd be seeing you soon. I'm afraid I don't have anything fascinating to tell you. The cause of death for this poor man is very straight forward. He was killed by a single bullet to the head," Ducky sad.

"Yeah, not surprising," Gibbs said.

Ducky looked at his friend. He could tell that the man had something on his mind. He hadn't just come down to hear news he'd already known. "Is something wrong, Jethro?"

Gibbs sighed. "The investigation has taken an interesting turn. McGee's father is somehow involved. He has information he refuses to disclose, so I'm having him come in."

"And how is Timothy taking this news?" Ducky wondered.

"Not great. He understands that it has to happen, but he doesn't like it," Gibbs said.

"Yes, well, that's understandable. No matter what the reason for hiding the information, it doesn't look good for the man. Either he's a suspect or possibly a future target. No man wants to have their father in either of those positions," Ducky said.

"That's not it. McGee hates his father. I don't think he gives a damn what happens to him," Gibbs said. Tim was more concerned with Kate than anyone was. Not one thought had been devoted to the trouble his father might be in.

"Jethro, everyone has said that about their parents at one time or another. I'm sure he doesn't really hate his father," Ducky said.

"No, he really does. He didn't care about what his father was involved in. His only thoughts were on Kate and what seeing the Admiral might do to her," Gibbs said.

"Well, that's odd. Why would he be so concerned about Caitlin? She's never given the impression that she needed to be protected. In fact, it's usually the opposite. She's always looking out in case someone or something would try to harm Timothy," Ducky said.

Gibbs nodded curtly. "Yeah. Kate sees it as her job to protect her little brother. She seems to take that job very seriously."

"You know, I remember a time when Timothy didn't want to have anything to do with Caitlin," Ducky said. In particular, he remembered the day Caitlin first joined the team. Timothy had been extremely rude and hostile to her. It had been very uncharacteristic of the young man.

"Yeah, I remember too," Gibbs said. How could he not remember? His youngest agent had gone off on a bender, something he didn't do under normal circumstances.

"Perhaps it's the same thing here. Timothy got over his anger for Caitlin. Maybe the same will happen with his father.

Gibbs shook his head. "No. McGee's understanding for Kate and hatred for his father go hand and hand. In the past, things seemed strained between the two, but the hatred didn't start until after Kate came back." After the case with his grandmother, it was clear that McGee and his father were not on the best of terms, but McGee still seemed to love his father. That had changed not long after Kate returned. Any mention of his father would cause a look of complete rage.

"Then he must have learned something, and to get hatred from Timothy, it had to be pretty bad," Ducky said. Even when Timothy was angry with Caitlin, he didn't seem to hater her. In fact it was quite the opposite. His anger was because he loved her.

Gibbs nodded. "I'm worried about him, Duck. I saw the rage on his face just while he was talking to him on the phone, though after talking to him myself, I can't really blame him."

"I take it he didn't endear himself much," Ducky said.

"Well, I spoke to him for two minutes and he was a world class bastard. I don't know what it is, Duck. Apparently no one on my team can have a decent upbringing," Gibbs said. It was hard to believe, but everyone one his team had horrible parents, more specifically fathers. Tony's father had been a jackass for most of Tony's life. He'd only recently started trying to form a relationship with the man. Ziva's father had treated her more like a soldier in his army than a father. He'd even been willing to leave alone in the hands of terrorists. Now there was McGee and Kate. They seemed to be no exception. In fact, something told Gibbs that their father, or stepfather in Kate's case, would be even worse than the others.

"Yes, there does seem to be a trend, doesn't there? How is Caitlin handling it?" Ducky asked.

"She doesn't know yet. She and DiNozzo aren't back from Norfolk yet," Gibbs said. They had called to give him an update, but he'd decided not to tell Kate about the Admiral yet. He thought that should be done by Tim in person. "Can't see going well. I can't see any of it going well. I get the feeling that the Admiral's presence is gonna end badly."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Tim was walking through the NCIS corridors with Rachel. She'd showed up about ten minutes earlier. "You didn't have to come here, you know."

"Sure I did. You tell me that the Admiral's coming and I'm not supposed to come check on you?" Rachel asked.

"I'm fine. It's not me I'm worried about," Tim said.

"I know you're not worried about yourself. That's why someone has to, and I don't think either of us wants it to be Kate given the circumstances, even though she will anyway," Rachel said. She knew her sister very well. Her focus was and would always be their brother, even above herself.

"Kate's who you should worry about. She's about to face the man who hurt her for the first time in nearly twenty-five years," Tim said.

"I am worried about her, but I'm worried about you too. You've never done well when faced with your father's anger and disappointment," Rachel said.

"I was a child then. Things have changed. I'm not worried about disappointing him," Tim said firmly.

"I'm glad to hear that, but I think a part of you still does want to prove yourself to him. Only instead of wanting to make him see you as someone he could be proud of, I think you wanna prove you're better than him. That way people will stop associating you with him," Rachel said.

Tim stopped and looked away uncomfortably.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. That's what a lot of people think. Every time we moved to a new base, people met you and expected that you'd be just like your father. All of John's fellow sailors used to look at you and tell you how much like your father you looked and how you'd probably be just like him when you got older. Hell, even I thought it unfortunately. It's expected, better or worse, that sons will grow up to be their fathers, and I think you wanna prove you're not like yours," Rachel said.

"I don't think you're supposed to shrink your own family, Rachel," Tim said while avoiding her gaze.

Rachel ignored her brother's diversionary tactic. "You don't need to prove anything, Tim. You are nothing like your father. You don't need to prove that you're better than him because anyone who knows you knows that you're better than him."

Just then, Tim's phone rang. He immediately took it out and answered it. "McGee. Okay, thanks."

"What's up?" Rachel asked.

"I asked an agent to let me know when Kate and Tony got back. Apparently they just got to the bullpen."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Kate and Tony were at their desks getting settled back in. "Ugh! Next time Tim makes the drive to and from Norfolk," Tony grumbled.

"Well, if he goes, you go. He and I aren't allowed to partner up, remember?" Kate asked. Gibbs had made it clear just after they disclosed their connection that they wouldn't be going on assignments just the two of them. It was a good thing too because Kate knew she wouldn't be able to be objective if her brother was placed in a potentially dangerous situation.

Tony was about to say something when he noticed Tim coming their way with his and Kate's sister. "Uh, Kate, I think you've got company.

Kate followed Tony's gaze behind her to her brother and sister. "Oh, this can't be good."

It wasn't long before Tim and Rachel were in front of Kate. "Hey. We need to talk?" Tim said.

"Yeah, I figured that since you're both in front of me. Should we do this elsewhere?" Kate asked. This was almost definitely a family thing so it only stood to reason that they should discuss whatever it was privately.

Tim glanced at Tony briefly and nodded. While Tony would find out about his father soon enough, he didn't need to hear their family secrets.

Kate stood up and led the way down the hall to the conference room. Once they were all inside, she closed the door. "Alright, what's going on?"

"The admiral you mentioned hearing about while in Norfolk," Tim said. He decided to leave it at that. He knew Kate would figure it out on her own.

Kate looked between her brother and sister and sighed. She had figured it out. The only reason Tim would mention the admiral involved in their case was if it was_ the _Admiral. "You've got to be kidding me."

"I wish I was. I spent half of the day trying to get the information about Commander Martin and the men he worked with. Finally, they told me I had to speak with the Admiral. Imagine my surprise when my father gets on the line," Tim said.

"How the hell is he involved in this?" Kate asked.

"We're not sure. He's stonewalling us. He refused to tell us anything. As I'm sure you can guess, Gibbs didn't respond well to that," Tim said.

"When does he get here?" Kate asked. Like Tim said, Gibbs wouldn't respond well to being screwed with. He was going to demand the Admiral be brought in for questioning.

"My guess is sometime tomorrow. I doubt he'll be happy when he gets here either," Tim said. The Admiral never did take kindly to being ordered around. Tim might find the fact that he was now satisfying if he weren't so worried about the visit.

"Are you gonna be okay?" Kate asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, Kate. Stop worrying about me," Tim said in exasperation. He couldn't understand how his sister could worry about him when she was about to see the man that hurt her for the first time in decades.

"That's not gonna happen as long as I draw breath. I will always worry about you. Now, you're about to see your father whom I'm guessing hasn't changed much over the years. I just wanna make sure you're gonna be okay to face him," Kate said.

"I'm not the one he hurt," Tim said.

"No, you're not the one he raped. There's a difference. He most definitely has hurt you over the years," Kate said.

"Kate, I know you're worried about Tim, so am I, but we're both also worried about you. It's not gonna be easy to face the Admiral after all these years," Rachel warned.

"That can be said about all of us. Look, I'm not deluded into thinking this is going to be easy. I am very well aware that memories will be dredged up here. But I'm not gonna let him get to me. He can't hurt me anymore. I know it and I'm gonna make sure he does to," Kate said firmly. She couldn't say she was looking forward to seeing the man who raped her again, but she wasn't eighteen anymore. She was now a capable agent who could kick his ass. She wasn't going to let him beat her.

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Tim asked.

"I'll be fine, Tim. Now come on, we should get back out there before Gibbs sends out a search party," Kate said before leading the way back to the bullpen. When they got there, they saw that Gibbs had returned to his desk.

"You two, go home," Gibbs told Tim and Kate as soon as he saw them.

"What?" Tim and Kate asked in unison. They were both surprised by the order. Usually during a case, they weren't sent home until at least eight. It was about five now.

"Was I speaking a language you can't understand? I said go home," Gibbs repeated.

"But what about the case?" Tim asked.

"We'll handle it. I want you two to go home and figure out how you're gonna handle Admiral McGee's visit tomorrow," Gibbs said.

Tim and Kate looked at each other before nodding. They then grabbed their things started towards the elevator with Rachel in tow.


	20. Chapter 20

Tim walked into the bullpen the next morning looking positively exhausted. He hadn't slept much the night before. He, Rachel and Kate had spent a good portion of the night talking about what was about the Admiral's upcoming visit and what it would mean for them. After going home, Tim spent the rest of the time worrying about it.

Tim walked towards his desk and saw Tony at his desk.

"Hey, Tim. You look like hell," Tony said.

"Gee, thanks," Tim said sarcastically as he continued the walk to his desk. He threw his bag behind his desk and plopped down in his chair. "Any word?"

"No, your dad's not here yet. Look, you gotta relax, man. It can't be that bad," Tony said.

Tim gave him an annoyed look. "You don't know my father, Tony. You don't get to say it's not that bad."

"I know fathers. I know how hard it can be with them. My old man dumped me in boarding school the second he had the chance," Tony said a bit bitterly. He and his dad were in a much better place now, but he couldn't help but still be angry about the past.

"Yeah, my father would've never done anything like that. He wouldn't have been able to control me as much if I was in boarding school," Tim said.

"You really think that's why?" Tony asked.

Tim nodded. "My father's big on control. Maybe it comes with being in the military. He needed it. If someone tried to take it from him, he went to excessive means to get it back." What happened to Kate was a prime example of that, he was sure. He didn't know for sure what happened, but he knew that rape was about control. He was almost positive his father did what he did to control Kate.

"And how would he do that? Did he hit you?" Tony couldn't help but ask.

"Only once. He backhanded me. Rachel intervened. It was the first time she ever regarded me with anything other than annoyance and anger. It was when she finally saw me for me. Anyway, my father preferred to torment me psychologically. He'd tell me how worthless I was and how I didn't deserve to be his son. When I was younger, he used to threaten to dump me on the streets. I was seven the first time he said it. As you can probably guess, I believed him," Tim said. That had been a rough day for him. It took Kate hours to convince him that he was not going to be kicked out of the house.

"Okay, I'll give you that. That's kinda cruel. How long before you realized he wasn't gonna do it?" Tony asked. Even his father hadn't been that cruel. He could be a bastard and he was extremely neglectful, but he never told him at that young that he'd kick him out.

"Five hours." The answer didn't come from Tim but from Kate as she walked to her desk.

"Okay, the way you keep doing that is way too much like Gibbs for my liking. Cut it out," Tony said.

"It was only five hours. Why'd seem like longer?" Tim asked.

"Because you were seven and you were devastated. Time always goes slower when you're that upset," Kate said. Honestly, it had seemed much longer to her as well. Time seemed to go slower when you were spending hours on end consoling a terrified little boy. She'd wanted to murder John that day. That wasn't really new though. She spent much of her life thinking of ways to kill her stepfather.

"That's rough, but I mean, you guys aren't kids anymore. What can he do now?" Tony asked.

"You don't think he's still capable of causing pain? Tell me, Tony, how would you feel if your father came to you now and treated you like something from the bottom of his shoe?" Kate asked. She knew very well that the Admiral was still very capable of hurting her brother. Tim might want to believe that his father meant nothing to him, but Kate wasn't so sure. At the end of the day, the man was still his father, and hearing your own father act like you're nothing was extremely devastating.

"Kate, it's okay. He doesn't get to me anymore," Tim said.

"You can say that all you want, but I don't buy it. That's why you're sitting here now looking like hell," Kate said. She knew he'd probably say that it wasn't himself he was worried about, that he was worried for her, and that might even be true to a certain extent, but this was going to affect him more than he realized consciously.

"She's got a point there, Tim. You don't look great," Tony said.

"I'm fine. Can we change the subject please? Has Petty Officer Logan been found?" Tim asked. They'd started looking for him when Kate and Tony called and told them he was on Collins' answering machine. The man disappeared though.

"No, he's still MIA," Tony said.

"Well, let's hope that's because he's running and not because someone got to him," Kate said. She was pretty sure Logan was another potential victim. His voice on that answering machine was laced with nothing but fear. He was scared for his life.

"We need to figure out what's going on here. We need those other names," Tony said.

Just then, Kate's phone started to ring. She immediately picked it up. "Agent Todd. Okay, thank you," she said before hanging up.

Tony and Tim looked at her expectantly.

"The Admiral's here. He's on his way up," Kate said.

Tim took a deep breath and stood up from his chair.

Kate stood up as well and they both faced the elevator.

Tony, meanwhile, was on the phone calling Gibbs. "Hey, Boss. Admiral McGee's on his way up." He quickly hung up and looked at his coworkers. "Gibbs will be here in a minute."

Tim and Kate didn't respond. They were still staring at the elevator as it stopped and the doors opened. An agent stepped out escorting a man with grayish blond hair wearing a navy uniform. "Well, there he is," Tim said.

Admiral John McGee surveyed the office. His eyes stopped a second later on Kate. Shock was evident for about half a second. He was obviously not expecting to see her.

Kate couldn't help but shiver when memories of the past flooded through her, mainly memories of him attacking her. She quickly pushed those thoughts away though. He didn't get to do that to her. She worked too hard to survive what he did to her for her to let him get to her now.

John continued to stare at Kate. His eyes were now cold and angry. He was not happy to see his stepdaughter again after all these years, and especially not with his son.

Tim growled at the look his father was giving his sister. He went to approach him, but he felt restraining hand on his arm. It was Kate's.

"Don't do it. Don't let him get to you," Kate told him.

Just then, Gibbs came down from the director's floor and started towards the Admiral. "Admiral McGee?"

John finally broke eye contact with Kate and glared at Gibbs. "Agent Gibbs, I take it?"

Gibbs nodded curtly

John glanced back at Kate. "What the hell's she doing here?"

"Works for me," Gibbs said simply.

"Those two as government agents," John said as he looked at his son and stepdaughter. "Talk about low standards."

Gibbs bristled inside, but said nothing. There would be time for that later. The case came first. "We have much to discuss, Admiral."

John glared once more at Gibbs. "I don't appreciate being summoned here, Gibbs."

"And I don't appreciate being circumvented. I warned you, Admiral. I told you I'd haul your ass in here," Gibbs said with a smirk.

"Do you have any idea who I am, Gibbs? No one hauls me anywhere!" John growled.

"Yet you're here," Gibbs pointed out.

Tim and Kate, meanwhile, were staring at their boss and the man that plagued half their lives. "He looks pissed," Tim said.

"He's not used to not being in control. This is a whole new experience for him," Kate said.

They all watched as Gibbs and the Admiral had a staring contest for a few moments. Then Gibbs started leading the man towards the interrogation rooms.

Kate and Tim looked at each other. "Observation room," they spoke at once before walking towards Interrogation themselves.


	21. Chapter 21

Gibbs brought the Admiral into interrogation One. He then took his seat. "Have a seat, Admiral."

John glared at Gibbs as he took his seat. "You bring me to an interrogation room? Do you have any idea who I am?"

"Oh, yeah, I think I have a pretty good idea," Gibbs said as the terms 'bastard' and 'egotistical jackass' entered his mind.

"I am a United Stated Navy Admiral! I will not be treated like a common criminal!" John barked.

Gibbs' face remained impassive. "In this room, the only thing you are is someone who's circumventing my case. You can be the President elsewhere for all I care. In here, you're just someone who will tell me what I want to know, one way or the other."

"You think you can intimidate me? No one intimidates me," John said with authority.

"Admiral, I'm not one of your sailors and I'm not one of your kids…"

"Back up right there, Gibbs. I had one child, and a pathetic one at that. Those little bitches were not mine," John said.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile, in the observation room, Tim and Kate had been watching the whole thing. Tim went to leave and confront his father on his last comment, but Kate held him back.

"Don't! Don't give him the satisfaction," Kate told her brother. She'd had to hold back too when John had called Tim pathetic. It took everything she had, but she knew she'd be playing into his hand.

Tim sighed and turned back to the interrogation. Gibbs looked pissed and was ready to pounce on the Admiral, but he was able to contain himself.

"They were your responsibility," Gibbs was saying.

"Hey, I did my job. I provided them with food and shelter and I kept them safe. That was all that was expected of me," John said.

Kate felt her hands shake with anger as memories of how the Admiral kept her 'safe' flooded her mind. She could practically feel his hands all over her like they were that night.

Tim, sensing his sister's distress, put his arm around. "It's okay. It's okay."

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"And how'd you keep your men safe?" Gibbs asked, bringing the discussion back to the case. If he continued talking to the Admiral about his family right now, he'd kill the man before he even learned what he needed about the case.

"Excuse me?" John asked with a glare.

"Two men from your ship are dead and another is missing," Gibbs said.

"I can't help you there," John said.

"Yeah, you can and you will. You know why they're dead. You may even know who killed them. You're gonna tell me now," Gibbs said in a threatening tone.

"No, I'm not. That information is need to know. If you know what's good for you, you'll let the Navy handle our own business and go back to pushing paperwork," John said.

Gibbs looked pissed at first, but a smirk slowly made its way to his face. "Is that really how you wanna play it, Admiral?"

John laughed. "Is that supposed to be your idea of a threat, Agent Gibbs? Because I gotta tell you, it's weak. Not that I would expect anything less from the man that employs my worthless son and the kid I was forced to take in after my wife died."

"I don't make threats, Admiral. I thought you would've realized that by now. McGee, Todd, Get in here!" Gibbs ordered. He knew very well that they were watching. They wouldn't have been able to help themselves.

The door opened a minute later and Tim and Kate stepped through.

"Arrest him," Gibbs ordered.

John's face lost any trace of humor or mocking. "Is this some sort of joke?"

"Oh, please don't let it be a joke," Kate whispered. This was like a dream come true for her. To actually be able to place handcuffs on the Admiral? To take away his power like he took away hers. She would enjoy this.

"Do it," Gibbs said again.

Kate couldn't help the smirk from reaching her face as she turned to the Admiral. "Get up."

John stared at his stepdaughter with absolute hatred before standing up from his seat. "Enjoy it while it lasts, Katie. I promise you'll regret it."

Kate momentarily shuddered at the nickname. It was what he'd called her that night. She couldn't stand to be called that since. What made it worse was that it was what her father called her when he was alive. The Admiral had completely ruined a name that had once meant so much to her.

Kate shook those thoughts away. It was time to take her power back, not dwell on when it was taken from her. This was the moment to relish in. This was the moment she would think about when she thought about the Admiral. She would think of the day she took his power away.

Kate forced John's hands behind his back and placed a pair of handcuffs around his wrist. "I regret a lot of things, John. This will never be one of them," she said before quickly reading him his rights.

Tim, meanwhile, was standing by the door with a smirk. He was not at all sorry this was happening. This man might be his father, but he'd hurt the one person in the world he loved the most. He would never forgive him for that.

John glared at his son. "Enjoying this, are you, Boy?"

Tim grinned even wider without shame. "Yeah. It should've happened a long time ago. I guess it's a case of better late than never. It won't be as long as should be though."

"How dare you speak to me with such disrespect?! I'm your father!" John yelled.

"Not anymore. You disowned me, remember? Told me that if I didn't join the Navy, I wasn't your son anymore. And what'd you say when I called you a couple of years ago? Oh, yes, I remember. You said it was a mistake to call you. You said I wasn't worthy of your time. It upset me back then, as it did when you disowned me. But now? Now I realize that you're not worth my time," Tim said with a rare coldness in his voice

"How dare you…?"

"How dare you?! How dare you do what you did and go about life like it didn't happen?! How dare you think that I can ever look at you with respect again or that you even deserve it?! You're nothing to me now! All you are is the bastard I'm forced to say I share blood with," Tim said.

"Those are some big words, son. You think you're this big man now because you're this hotshot federal agent. What a joke? All you are is a pencil pusher. I'm sure you'll mess that up too though. Then what will you have? Who will you go crying to then? It better not be me," John said coldly.

Kate grabbed him roughly by the arm and started leading him out the door. "He doesn't need you! He's never needed you. Now, let's go!"

John started to fight Kate just as they made out of the room and turned back to his son. "Oh, Timothy. You might want to remember something. I'm not the only one with secrets that could come out."

Kate pulled on her stepfather's arms more forcefully this time and led him away.


	22. Chapter 22

Tim watched as his sister and father disappeared from his view. There was no trace of the satisfaction he felt just a few moments ago. Now all that was left was fear and apprehension. His father had pretty much just threatened to ruin his life.

It wasn't just Kate and Rachel Tim was worried about. They were a big part of it. He didn't want them to know the things that really went on after they were forced to leave. They would never look at him the same way again. But it was not just them. If this got around the agency, he would lose everything. He couldn't let that happen. He had to find some way of keeping his father quiet.

Tim must have been lost in his thoughts for a while because all of a sudden, Gibbs was in front him and was closing the door.

Gibbs turned to his agent and gave him a piercing stare. "There something you wanna tell me, McGee."

"What could there possibly be, Boss?" Tim asked.

"You tell me. What was that with your father a minute ago? What secrets was he talking about?" Gibbs asked. Normally he wouldn't ask, just as he hadn't asked about whatever secret there was about Kate, but this was already starting to affect his agent. He saw the change in the younger man's demeanor after his father's vague threat.

"Oh, that was nothing, Boss. That was just the Admiral playing games," Tim said as casually as possible. He needed to make his boss believe him, no matter how likely that might be.

"Really?" Gibbs asked skeptically. He had no problem believing the Admiral liked to play games with his son and stepchildren, but he also knew that something else was going on.

"Yeah. He's just trying to drive a wedge between me and Kate. He's never liked her or the relationship we had. He blames her for my not following in his footsteps," Tim said. That part was true at least. His father probably was trying to come between him and Kate with his threat.

"Well, he's probably right about that," Gibbs said. He had no doubt that Tim was who he was because of Kate. It certainly wasn't the Admiral's influence that made Tim into the kind, compassionate man he was today. That had to be Kate's influence when he was a child.

"Yeah, he is," Tim agreed.

"But something else is going on here. Your father was you spooked," Gibbs said.

"No, Boss, it's nothing. It's just kind of disconcerting having him here," Tim said before looking away

"Not buying it, Tim. Your father is holding something over your head. Something that might change things. Look at me," Gibbs ordered.

Tim brought his eyes back over to his boss'.

"I don't know who it is you're hoping to keep this from. Me, Kate, or both, but I know that driving yourself crazy with wondering if your father will spill it has to be worse," Gibbs said. He then took a few steps closer to his agent. "And I also know that those you're trying to keep it from will be more upset if they hear it from the Admiral rather than you."

Tim opened his mouth after a minute as if he was gonna tell his boss, but he promptly shut. He couldn't do it. He couldn't tell anyone about this. "There's nothing to tell, Boss."

Gibbs stared at Tim for a few more seconds and then walked out of the room.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Kate watched the Admiral step into a holding cell and then he she closed it behind him. God, it felt good, better than she could even imagine. The man that had attacked her when she was young was behind bars and she had been the one to put him there. It was very satisfying. Hell, it was almost therapeutic.

John leaned against the bars and glared at Kate. "You're loving this, aren't you?"

Kate didn't even try to stop the smirk from coming onto her face. "Seeing you where you belong? Oh, yeah."

John laughed mockingly. "You really think I'm gonna be here long?"

Kate sighed. "No, probably not, but it doesn't need to be. I know you, John. I know what this is doing to you. You, a United States Navy Admiral sitting in a holding cell at the mercy of, what did you call us? Oh, right, pencil pushers."

"Shut up," John growled.

Kate chuckled. "Yeah, it's gotta be killing you. Admiral John McGee treated like a criminal."

"I said shut up!"

Kate kept going as though he never opened his mouth. "But that's what you are, isn't it? You're a rapist and a child abuser." While it was true, the Admiral hadn't raised his hands to them before raping her, except for the one time he'd slapped Tim, he'd still abused them. He just used other means to do it.

John smiled. "So you haven't forgotten our night then."

Kate felt a white hot rage flow through her at his words. She had been trying hard not to get emotional about what the Admiral did to her, but she couldn't help it. "You son of a bitch! Don't act like it was a night of passion! You raped me! You dragged me up to your bed and you forced me to have sex with you!"

"You got what you deserved! You were defied me at every turn! You showed me a complete lack of respect," John said.

"I respect those who deserve it. You never did. You treated my mother like crap and proceeded to do the same to me and my brother and sister. And do you rape everyone who doesn't respect you?" Kate asked.

"I was making a point. I was in control, not you," John said.

"But you didn't. You had no control over any of us, least of all Tim. It was me he looked to and you hated that. I was the one Tim went to when he had a problem. I was the one that took him to task when he did something wrong. You certainly never did. All you did was call him a disappointment and tell him he wasn't worthy of being your son. It was me he went to for everything. And you couldn't have that. You had to establish control over someone in that house and it wasn't gonna be Tim, so you made it me," Kate said.

"Yeah, you're damn right I was taking control of you! You were turning my son against me! I wasn't gonna have that!" John yelled.

"No, I protected him! I protected him from your warped view of what makes a man. I taught him what it meant to be a real man. I taught him to treat people with kindness and respect. Real respect, not the 'yes sir, no sir' crap you demand from people even though you don't give it in return. I taught him to be what he wanted to be, not the clone you wanted to turn him into. And it worked. Even after you forced me away and you had him at your complete mercy, he followed the life lessons I taught him. He followed the path he wanted and he became an impeccable person. He rose above everything you put on hi," Kate said with a smile. She was more proud of Tim than she could even say. He'd grown up to be the kind of man she'd taught him to be, the kind of man their mother would be proud of.

"Oh, is that a fact? You sure, Katie? You were gone a long time. You have no idea the kinds of things that went on," John said a triumphant grin.

"It's not gonna work, John. You can't turn Tim and me against each other by alluding to some secret that doesn't exist," Kate said. She was positive that that was what he was doing. Tim had no secrets from her. He'd sat in her apartment with her and Rachel and promised that there were no more secrets. He wouldn't lie to her.

"Doesn't exist, huh? You sure about that. Why don't you ask Timothy how he spent his thirteenth birthday?" John asked.

Kate shook her head and walked away


	23. Chapter 23

Tim made it back to his desk a few minutes later. He found just Tony there when he got there.

"Hey, man. I heard Gibbs arrested your dad," Tony said.

"Actually, Kate did," Tim said.

"Really? Wow, that must have made her day. I know how much she hates him. How are you doing with it though? It can't have been easy watching your father be arrested," Tony said. He knew Tim didn't get on with his father and that the man had been pretty cruel to his kids, but no one could be happy about their parent being arrested.

"Are you crazy? I thoroughly enjoyed it," Tim said. He'd enjoyed it until his father's last statement anyway. "I hate my father, Tony."

"Well, everybody says that. I know I've said it about my old man quite a few times in the past," Tony said. He'd especially said it when he was a kid. His father had been a world class jerk when he was a kid. He still was to some degree, but it had gotten better. No matter what though, he still loved his father.

"Yeah, but you didn't mean it. I mean it. With every fiber of my being, I mean it," Tim said firmly.

"So if you're not upset about him being arrested, what are you upset about?" Tony asked. He could tell that his friend was upset. The look on his face said that much. Something was eating at him.

"I'm not upset," Tim lied. He was extremely upset and worried about what his father could do to him. He was tempted to go see the man and see if he planned to spill the beans, but Tim knew that would just make the situation worse.

"Oh, come on, Tim. I can see the distress all over your face. You don't have a very good poker face," Tony said.

Tim sighed. Tony was right about that. He had no poker face whatsoever. He knew very well that his worry was evident all over his face. He was going to have to find a way to get control of that before Kate got back or she would start to ask questions. "Really, it's nothing. I just want this business with the Admiral to be done and over with. The sooner he's gone, the better."

"Here, here," Kate said as she joined them. She took her seat at her desk. "Speaking of the Admiral, he's in a holding cell."

"And judging from the look on your face, you enjoyed it," Tony said. She had a grin from ear to ear. She almost definitely enjoyed arresting her stepfather.

Kate grinned at him before turning to her brother. She immediately noticed the sour look on his face. "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing," Tim lied.

"Don't give me that. The last time I saw you, you had a massive grin on your face. Now you look like you lost your favorite toy. What gives?" Kate asked.

Tim shrugged.

"Oh, is this about what the Admiral said to you before I took him away? You don't think I bought into that crap, do you? I know you don't have any secrets from me. You promised me and Rachel that there was nothing and I know you wouldn't lie," Kate said.

Tim groaned. Well, this was great. Now he felt guilt to go along with his worry and fear. Kate believed him because she didn't think he would lie to her. Unfortunately, that was exactly what he had done. That just made him feel ten times worse.

All of a sudden, Kate's phone began to ring. "Agent Todd. Oh, hey, Rach. Yeah, he's here. He… Huh? Yeah, okay. Where? Okay, I'll see you soon. Bye."

"What's going on?" Tim asked.

"Rachel wants to have lunch. You game?" Kate asked.

"Um, I already told Delilah I'd have lunch with her," Tim said. Great, there was another lie. He just couldn't have lunch with Kate and Rachel. There was no way he'd be able sit through lunch with both his sisters. Then they would both see his demeanor and would gang up on him until they told him what was going on. That was the downside to having two older sisters.

"Okay, that's not a big deal. We don't both need to be there to tell her what happened with the Admiral," Kate said.

"Right. I'll be back. I'm going to the Head," Tim said before getting up from his desk and walking away.

Xxxxxxxxxxx

"So what secret was he talking about?" Rachel asked. She and Kate were in a small café near NCIS. Kate had just told her all about what happened after the Admiral arrived.

"Oh, there was no secret, Rachel. It was just the Admiral being the Admiral. He was trying to screw with us," Kate said.

"Oh, trust me, I have no doubt that the Admiral would lie to screw with you, but what's the point of this lie. If there's no secret, how can it possibly screw with you?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know, maybe to drive a wedge between us. Make me think there's something to know when there's not," Kate said.

"Yeah, but you said the Admiral mentioned a specific time period. When Tim was thirteen. People aren't usually that specific," Rachel said. In her experience, people were often vague when they lied or told wild stories that couldn't possibly be true.

"You think Tim's hiding something. Rachel, he looked us both in the eye and told us there were no secrets. You think he lied?" Kate asked. She couldn't believe that. Tim had never lied to her before. Even when he was a child and thought he might be in trouble, he was always up front with her when she asked him direct questions.

Rachel looked thoughtful for a minute. "I think that things got much worse for Tim when we left. They almost had to. I think there have gotta be things that went on in that house that we don't know about."

"If that was the case, why wouldn't he just tell us?" Kate asked.

"Why didn't you tell him your secret?" Rachel countered. "We all have reasons for keeping things secret."

Kate sighed. "He promised there was nothing. We have to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"I'm not suggesting we accuse him of lying, but I think we should at least talk to him, maybe ask him about the time the Admiral mentioned," Rachel said.

"And if that's what the Admiral wants?" Kate asked.

"Oh, I'm sure it's what he wants, but I'm also sure it's what needs to be done. If Tim is hiding something, the lie alone will eat him alive. We can't let that happen," Rachel said.

"Rachel, if he lied to me… I don't know how to handle that," Kate said. She still didn't fully believe there was a secret, but if there was, it meant her brother lied to her. She knew she really wasn't one to lecture about keeping secrets, but lies were another thing altogether. She would be incredibly upset if Tim lied to her.

"Deal with one thing at a time. We've gotta find out what's going on," Rachel said.

Kate sighed. "Okay. What do you suggest?"

Xxxxxxxxxxx

Tim found himself walking down to the holding cells. He hadn't wanted to come see his father, but the man had told one of the guards to give him a 'come see me or else' message. Tim knew very well what that meant. It meant his father would out him if he didn't come.

Tim walked to his father's cell and stopped. "What do you want?"

"Is that any way to talk to your father, Timothy?" John asked.

"It is when my father's also my sister's rapist," Tim said through gritted teeth.

John chuckled. "Oh, so Katie's been telling stories, huh? You been telling stories too, son?"

Tim glared at his father. "You already know the answer to that."

"Oh, of course not. You can't have her know _that_ can you. She just might realize what I've been saying for years. That you're nothing but a pathetic little coward. You took the easy way out just like I always suspected you would," John said.

"I was thirteen-years-old! You were making my existence miserable!" Tim growled.

"Don't make excuses for your own weakness. Own what you did."

"Right after you," Tim retorted. What he did back then was wrong and it was cowardly, but he was a child. It was a far from rape and abuse. That being said, he knew very well that his family and friends wouldn't be able to look at him the same if they knew. He had to find some way of keeping it from them.

John glared at his son, but his glare soon turned into a smirk. "You've got your life all figured out, don't you, Boy? But we both know I could tear it to shreds."

"She wouldn't believe you," Tim said. He wasn't totally convinced though. Kate might think he was lying at first, but it would put doubts in her mind. She would always wonder if it was true.

"Kate might not at first, but what the others? What about that boss of yours? You think he'll believe me? In any event, they'll have to believe it when the documentation suddenly appears out of nowhere," John said.

"You wouldn't do that. If you did, everyone would know, including your Navy buddies. You wouldn't put yourself at risk for the possible embarrassment," Tim said. His father might tell Kate and even Gibbs, but he would never offer proof or go public. It would destroy him too.

"It's no more embarrassing than being locked up like a common criminal," John said.

"You are a common criminal!" Tim yelled.

"Make this go away, Timothy. Or everyone will find out," John said with a malicious smirk.

Tim glared at his father for a minute and then stormed out.


	24. Chapter 24

At the end of the day, Tim was leaning against his car in the garage. He couldn't start driving just yet. He was so stressed that he was afraid he might cause an accident if he started driving right now.

All Tim could think about was his father's threats. He didn't know what to do. He couldn't let his secret get out. No one would understand. His sisters would look at him like there was something wrong with him, Gibbs and Tony probably would too, and the agency would question his competence to do his job, all because of one desperate act when he was a boy.

Tim sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was so screwed. He couldn't think of any way to regain control here. His father was blackmailing him and the bastard might go through with it if Tim didn't get Gibbs to let him go. And there was absolutely no chance of that unless the Admiral played ball with him. There seemed to be no way out of this one.

Tim soon heard someone coming. He looked up to see Ducky headed his way.

"Ah, Timothy. Going home now, lad?" Ducky asked as he stopped in front of him.

"Uh, yeah," Tim said.

Ducky looked at him for a moment. "Shouldn't you be getting in the car?"

"Yeah, probably," Tim said. He made no move to get in the car though.

"Timothy, are you alright? Is it your father? I hear that he's been arrested," Ducky said.

"Yeah. He's circumventing our case, so Gibbs had Kate arrest him," Tim said.

"That must be very upsetting for you," Ducky said. Despite the things Jethro told him the day before, he couldn't believe Timothy disliked his father so much that he was okay with the man being arrested.

"No, I don't care about that. My father belongs in jail. The only thing that I regret about him being arrested is that it wasn't for something much more steep," Tim said.

Ducky was surprised by both the words and the tone of voice in which they were spoken, but he decided not to comment right now. Something was bothering Timothy, and if it wasn't Admiral McGee's arrest, he wondered what it was. "Then why are you so distressed?"

Tim looked at the older man. It wouldn't hurt to at least tell Ducky something. Ducky wouldn't say anything to anyone and he might even be able to help. "Ducky, what would you do if someone blackmailed you?"

"Well, that is simple, my boy. I would remove the blackmailer's power. You can't be blackmailed if there's nothing left for you to be blackmailed with," Ducky said.

Tim sighed. Ducky's response didn't really help him. He knew what the man meant of course. He meant that he should reveal his secret before the Admiral could. The problem was that if he could do that, he wouldn't even be in this predicament. "If only it were that simple."

"Is it your father that's blackmailing you, Timothy?" Ducky asked. He knew that Timothy had to be the one being blackmailed. It was obvious by the question and the level of stress he was projecting. The only thing he didn't understand was what anyone could possibly be being blackmailed with.

Tim nodded after a minute. "He wants me to help him get out of this thing with Gibbs. If I don't, he says..."

Ducky waiting a moment for Timothy to continue, but he didn't. He just left the statement unfinished. "He'll reveal something that you wish to remain secret."

"Yeah," Tim admitted. It was the first time he'd admitted to someone that there was a secret. Gibbs knew there was one too, but Tim had yet to admit it to him.

"Well, I don't know what you could be hiding that's so big to be blackmailed over, but my advice is the same. Don't give your father this power over you. Reveal your secret before he has the chance," Ducky said.

"I can't. I can't tell anyone about this," Tim said.

"Timothy, is this secret of yours really so big that you think it can't be forgiven?" Ducky asked that. He had a hard time believing that. Timothy was such an extraordinary person. It was hard to believe that there was anything he could do bad enough that couldn't be forgiven.

"Well, no, it's not really like that. I'm not worried about forgiveness," Tim said. He knew that Kate and Rachel would be upset by what he did. They might even be somewhat upset with him for doing it, but it wasn't to the point where they'd hate him. He was more worried about the way they'd look at him later. They'd see him as something that was broken. They'd always wonder if it would happen again. He couldn't take that.

Ducky wanted to ask what it was he was afraid of, but he didn't want to push the young man. It was very clear that whatever it was, was difficult for him. Timothy, I don't know what it is you're afraid of and I won't push you to tell me, but I don't think you're going to be able to hide it forever. Even without this blackmail thing, it would come out eventually. Secrets never stay secret forever. And it would be best if it came from you."

"Gibbs said something similar to me. But Gibbs doesn't know the truth. I'm sure if he did, he'd call me a coward just like my old man," Tim said. Gibbs would definitely see what he did as a coward's move. Hell, Tim himself saw it has a coward's move. It was just that at the time, he didn't see any other way.

"Well, I don't know what this is either, but no matter what it is, I think Jethro would surprise you by his reaction. Caitlin probably will as well," Ducky said.

As if on cue, Kate was walking towards them at that moment. "Hey, Ducky."

"Hello, Caitlin. Although, I think goodnight is the more proper response. I should be going now. Timothy, think about what I've said," Ducky said before heading to his car.

Kate watched Ducky leave and then looked at her brother. He looked very stressed and upset. The look on his face reminded her of when he was a little boy. It was enough to tug at her heart. "Hey. Come on. You're gonna come home with me."

'I… That's not necessary. I can go home," Tim said kind of weakly. He knew this was an argument he was not going to win. Kate knew he was upset and she wasn't going to leave him alone right now. He didn't really have it in him to put up a big fight anyway.

Kate sighed. "I'm not leaving you alone tonight. Something is clearly wrong. I'm not going to push you on it tonight, but I'm not gonna let you leave like this either.

"I…I…"

"It's okay. Whatever it is, it'll be okay. Come on," Kate said softly before leading her brother towards her own car. He didn't try to stop her.


	25. Chapter 25

Kate led the way into her apartment. Once she and Tim were inside, she closed the door and then led her brother over to the couch. "Here, sit down. I'm gonna get you something to eat."

"I'm not hungry," Tim said quietly.

"Well, you need to eat something. I'm gonna get us both a sandwich," Kate said before disappearing into the kitchen.

Tim sighed and looked down at his lap. He felt like the walls were closing in on him right now. He felt so cornered. The ironic part was that Kate wasn't pushing him. She hadn't asked him once about whatever was bothering him. Yet he still felt like he was being backed into a corner. And he was, just not by Kate. His father was the one pushing him. By blackmailing him, he was forcing him either to reveal his secret or have it revealed for him. Either way, it seemed his secret being revealed was unavoidable. He'd tried to think of every possible way to get out of telling Kate or anyone else his secret, but it was impossible. His father had ruined things for him yet again.

Kate came back just then with two plates with sandwiches on them in her hands. She handed one to Tim and then went and sat next to him on the couch.

Tim looked at the sandwich for a second before placing the plate on the table. He had no appetite right now. His stomach was in too many knots with what he knew he had to do.

"Tim, come on, you have to eat," Kate said. She was extremely worried about her brother. He was going to make himself sick with the way he was carrying on. He'd gotten progressively worse all day. When she got back from her lunch with Rachel, he looked like he was in hell. She really wanted to ask him what was going on, but she promised she wouldn't push him tonight. She wouldn't break that promise. She would, however, do what she had to, to make sure he remained healthy. That meant eating something.

"The Admiral's blackmailing me," Tim blurted out. He figured if he was going to do this, he'd better do it now. He would lose his nerve otherwise.

Kate was caught off guard by her brother's statement. She'd suspected the Admiral was heavily involved, especially if Rachel was right and it was something from when Tim was a kid that was eating away at him so badly. But she didn't expect him to just come out with it. She figured she'd have to push him for the truth at some point.

Kate sighed and placed her plate on the table. "The Admiral's blackmailing you. Well, there's only one way I can see out of a blackmail."

Tim nodded. "Take away the leverage."

"So are gonna tell me?" Kate asked. She hadn't intended to ask Tim about this at all tonight, but he'd initiated the conversation. He wanted this to end. He just needed a little encouragement to go further.

Tim didn't answer. He knew he had to tell Kate the truth. He just couldn't seem to get the words out.

"You lied to me, didn't you? When you sat here with Rachel and me and told us there were no secrets, you were lying."

"Yes. I'm sorry, Kate. I just couldn't tell you the truth," Tim said while looking away.

"Why not. Since when can't you talk to me? You've been coming to me your whole life. You've always known you could talk to me," Kate said.

"This is different," Tim said.

"Why? Because the Admiral got into your head? Let me guess, he's got you so turned around that you think that I'm gonna turn my back on you because of whatever this is," Kate said. She was sure that that was how it was. It was exactly the kind of thing the bastard would do. He'd been doing it Tim's whole life. He wasn't happy if he couldn't convince the kid he was unlovable.

"No. Well, yes, he did try to say that, but that's not why I didn't want you to know. I know you won't turn against me, but it will change the way you look at me," Tim said.

"Not possible," Kate said. She didn't care what happened. Tim could've robbed a bank and she would still see him as the little brother she loved more than life. Nothing could change that.

"You don't know," Tim said as he looked down at his lap.

"So explain it to me. Tell me what's going on and let me decide what to think about it," Kate said.

Tim took a deep breath to try to prepare himself for what he was about to tell Kate and how she'd react to it. "After you left, things were pretty much the same for a while. The only difference was that you weren't there to tell me that anything the Admiral said about me was crap and not to listen to it. Eventually though, it got worse. It was about four months prior to my thirteenth birthday that things really started to get bad."

"Did he hit you?" Kate asked. Tim had promised that the Admiral hadn't struck him again after that one time he admitted to, but she couldn't be sure he told the truth.

"No, I was telling the truth when I said he never hit me again. He had other ways though. He came to me one day and said it was time for me to learn to be a real man. He said he didn't think someone as pathetic as me would succeed, but that the least I could do was try. He said he didn't have time to do it himself though, so he was handing me over to one of his sailors. This guy was a particular bastard. He was the Admiral's protégé. He made my life a living hell," Tim said. He was not exaggerating. Life was hell for him back then. Every waking moment was spent in agony.

"What did he do?" Kate asked.

"I was forced to do all the things they do in boot camp. I had to run and do obstacle courses. I know that doesn't seem like much, but it was actually brutal because I wasn't good at it, and if I didn't do it all right or in a timely fashion, I'd have to start all over. I wasn't allowed to stop or take breaks. I wasn't able to eat until I did everything perfectly. I couldn't even break for water unless I was so dehydrated that he thought I would pass out. I was at that point many times. Hell, there were times when I actually did pass out. It got to the point where I hoped I would because if I passed out, it would stop for the day," Tim told her. The pain in his voice as he explained was evident. It was a very difficult time in his life and it was obvious that it still affected him to think about.

"Son of a bitch!" Kate growled. She wanted to kill both the Admiral and his little bastard clone for daring to put her brother through something that horrible. It was abuse. There was no other word for it. They'd driven her brother to the brink. They could've killed him. He was a little boy and he was driven to the point where he would pass out from dehydration and exhaustion.

"The first night after I got home, the Admiral was there waiting for me. He had this look on his face. This sick grin," Tim said. He still remembered that look. It had told him without a doubt that his father knew exactly what he was being subjected to.

"Yeah, I know the look," Kate said. She saw that same look on the Admiral right after he'd raped her. It was a malicious, satisfied smirk. It was his way of telling people that he had them right where he wanted them. "I don't understand why you couldn't tell me this though. Why would you think this would have me looking at you differently?

"That's not it. This was just the background information. Something I needed you to know to understand why I did it. It was a living hell and I couldn't find a way out. Every day was the same. I couldn't find a way out of it. I thought about running away, but I knew the Admiral would find me," Tim said. Running away had been his first consideration, but had nowhere to go and he knew his father or one of his Navy buddies would find him.

"Yeah, he probably would've. So what did you do?" Kate asked. She had a feeling she knew the answer, but she was really, really hoping she was wrong.

"I tried so hard, Kate. I tried to stay strong and be a man," Tim said before looking away from her.

"But you weren't a man. That's the whole point," Kate said. He had been twelve years old when this all had started, not even a teenager yet. He shouldn't have been expected to handle things soldiers had a hard enough time dealing with.

"Yeah. It had been four months and it just seemed to get worse every day. It was the day before my thirteenth birthday. Morgan, that was his name, said he had something 'special' planned for my birthday. He had that same glint the Admiral had that first day. I knew it was gonna be horrible, worse than any other day had been. I was already thinking about a way out before then and I'd already had my answer. That day just solidified my decision," Tim said before turning back to Kate. He then took a deep breath. "I…I tried to kill myself.


	26. Chapter 26

Kate was extremely quiet after her brother's admission. She wasn't unprepared to hear it, as she'd had a feeling that was what Tim was going to say, but expecting to hear something and actually hearing it were two different things. Her brother had attempted suicide. His father had tortured him so bad that he thought dying was his only escape. The very idea shook her to the core.

Tim looked at his sister and waiting for her to speak. She didn't though. She had been quiet for several minutes now. It was scaring him. He wanted to know what she was thinking. He wanted her to talk to him, even if it was to tell him how awful what he did was. "Kate, please say something."

"How? How'd you do it?" Kate asked. She wasn't sure she wanted to know, but she needed to. She needed to understand all of it.

"I took Dad's gun," Tim said.

"You shot yourself?!" Kate exclaimed in horror.

"Yeah. The Admiral came in as I was pulling the trigger. The surprise plus the fact that I wasn't an experienced shooter caused me to mess up the shot. I ended up grazing my scalp." Tim explained.

"Well, thank goodness for small favors," Kate said. She never thought she'd be grateful to the Admiral for anything, but she was glad the Admiral had interrupted her brother's suicide. It was probably the only reason he was still alive. Of course the fact that it was the Admiral's fault in the first place kind of negated the fact that he inadvertently stopped Tim.

"Well, I didn't think so at the time, but yeah, it was a good thing," Tim said. Now he was glad his suicide attempt failed. He had a good life now. Besides, doing what he did was cowardly. His father was right about that.

"What happened after?" Kate asked.

Tim sighed. "The Admiral couldn't hide it. Lord knows he tried though. He tried to convince the doctors and the police that it was an accident. That I was playing with his gun and it went off. No one believed him. Everyone knew that the wounds were self-inflicted. So he changed tactics. When I was questioned, he was there and he acted like he knew nothing about my reasons for doing it. He acted like a concerned parent."

"Such crap," Kate huffed.

"I knew what he was doing instantly. I knew what he expected of me. I told everyone what happened. How the last several months of my life had been. The Admiral threw his protégé to the wolves immediately. Told everyone how he had no idea what was really going on. Said he arranged for Morgan to hang out with me so I'd have a guy to talk to since he wasn't around as much as he should be. It worked. They all bought it and Morgan went to jail," Tim said.

"Well, at least one of them did," Kate said. The Admiral should've been locked up right along with, but she was glad the man that tortured her little brother at least got put behind bars for what he did. "Tell me you at least got some help. That you saw someone."

"Yeah, I did. Like I said, the Admiral couldn't hide it this time. I mean, he made sure to hide if from most of the base, but he couldn't hide it from the doctors or the authorities. Child Services were called and they forced him to get me some help. I was sent to a juvenile facility for mental problems. I was there for six months. It was probably the best six months of my life since you left," Tim said. It really was sad. He'd felt more secure and happy in a glorified mental institution than with his own father.

"And what happened when you got home?" Kate asked.

"Nothing at first. He basically ignored me unless absolutely necessary. He did instruct me not to tell anyone where I really was all that time. He told them that I was just staying with Penny while I recuperated from what Morgan did to me. They knew about that, but they didn't know about my suicide attempt. Anyway, after a while, it went back to the way it was before Morgan came into the picture. The Admiral went back to belittling me. He used my attempt to kill myself to do it quite a bit. He called me a coward for taking the easy way out," Tim said.

Kate hissed in anger. She really wanted to kill the Admiral. She wanted to kill him more than she ever had before, and that was saying something. The bastard had orchestrated the torture of her brother. He drove him to the point where he was willing to kill himself to get away. And it almost happened. Tim could've died.

"It was better though. I could live with it. Besides, he was right," Tim said.

"The hell he was! What happened wasn't your fault, Tim, it was his," Kate said firmly. She would not allow him to blame himself. It was not his fault. He was a child who was at the end of his rope.

"I did it, Kate. I pulled the trigger. He didn't put the gun in my hands," Tim said. He hated his father very much and he did believe the Admiral had a lot of responsibility for what happened, but at the end of the day, he fired the gun.

"Yeah, he did. By doing what he did, he put the gun in your hand. This is not your fault. You were a little boy and you were just trying to find a way out," Kate said.

"It was a coward's move," Tim said.

"Those are his words! He told you that and he's a bastard for it. It was his way of making you responsible for what he did. Don't do that to yourself. You are no more responsible than I am for being raped," Kate said.

"That's different. He forced you. No one forced me to pull the trigger," Tim said.

"That's a matter of opinion. I personally think he did force you, by giving you no other way out. You've gotta stop blaming yourself. This is not your fault," Kate said.

"I know that he drove me to it. I get that, but don't I carry responsibility for the choice I made?" Tim asked.

"If you were an adult, maybe, but you weren't. You were a teenaged boy who had no one in his corner. That's something I'm partly responsible for," Kate said sadly. She never should've left. She should've fought Penny tooth and nail to stay with her brother. This wouldn't have happened if she had been there. None of it would've. It was no wonder he was so angry when she first made it back to him.

"No! You can't do that, Kate. You had to leave. You had to protect yourself from him. If you had stayed, he would've done it again. I wouldn't have been able to live with that. Please don't blame yourself," Tim begged.

"I'll make you a deal. I'll stop if you will. We'll let the blame lie where it belongs. With him. Deal?" Kate asked.

"Deal," Tim said.

Kate leaned forward and pulled her brother into her arms. "It's gonna be okay, little brother. Everything's gonna be okay."

Tim hugged her back and finally began to relax. For the first time all day, he actually felt relief. The secrets he had been carrying had felt like ten pound weights on his shoulders. Now that it was out, it was like those weights had been lifted off. And for the first time since his father arrived, he felt like Kate was right. Everything would be okay. His sister knew the truth and she understood. That was all he needed. He could deal with anything the Admiral threw at him now.


	27. Chapter 27

The next morning, Tim walked out of Kate's guest room and walked down the hall to the kitchen. He found Kate there pouring a cup of coffee.

Kate turned when she heard her brother come in. "Morning."

"Morning. What time is it?" Tim asked.

"Just after seven. Help yourself to some coffee," Kate told him.

"No, I should get dressed. We have to be to work soon," Tim said.

"We're going in late. I already cleared it with Gibbs," Kate said. It hadn't been easy to get Gibb to agree. This was the third time their family issues had gotten in the way of their job and Gibbs wasn't happy. This time, he had been unwilling to just accept it blindly. He'd made it very clear that he expected an explanation when they finally made it in. "Rachel's on her way. The three of us need to talk."

"Did you tell her?" Tim asked before walking further into the room. He grabbed a mug from the cabinet and poured himself some coffee.

"No, I didn't tell her anything. I wouldn't do that. It's up to you to tell her and you need to. We can't have any more secrets. It just gives the Admiral more power," Kate said.

"I know. I knew once I told you that I would have to tell Rachel as well. I'm not as worried about it now," Tim said. If the way Kate reacted was any indication, Rachel would be okay too. She'd be upset by what he did, but hopefully she would understand and not look at him any different.

"Good, you shouldn't be. There's nothing for you to worry about. Rachel will place the blame where it belongs, and it's not with you. You know you're going to have to tell Gibbs too, right?" Kate asked before taking a sip of her coffee.

Tim sucked in a breath. That he was worried about. He wasn't as worried as before because he knew he had Kate and probably Rachel in his corner and that was enough to relieve him of most of his fear, but he was still worried. He knew Gibbs wouldn't respond well, and the director would respond even worse if he knew. There was a very good chance that his job would be at risk if that happened, especially given his method of suicide attempt. Hell, he never would've been hired in the first place if anyone had known.

"It's gonna be okay, Tim. Gibbs will understand," Kate assured him.

'Yeah, I don't know about that," Tim said skeptically.

Just then, they both heard a knock at the door. Kate immediately went to answer it. Unsurprisingly, she found Rachel on the other side. "Hey. Come on in."

Rachel smiled at her sister and walked inside. "Good morning, you two."

"Hey, Rachel," Tim said before walking over to the dining room table. He placed his coffee mug down and sat down.

"You want some coffee, Rach?" Kate asked.

"No, I'm good. Thanks," Rachel said before sitting across from her brother at the table.

Kate joined them as well. She sat down next to Tim.

Rachel looked at Tim. "So can I assume by this meeting that you finally spilled?"

Tim blushed. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"So what's going on?" Rachel asked.

Tim took a deep breath and proceeded to tell his oldest sister everything that happened when he was a kid. It wasn't as difficult as it had been with Kate, as the amount of fear he felt before wasn't there this time. He was still a bit worried about her reaction, but not like he had been last night.

Rachel wished she could say she was shocked by the things her brother told her. She was shocked and horrified by the things her brother went through, but she wasn't surprised that they could happen. Her bastard of a stepfather was certainly capable of such cruelty and of driving a young boy so mad that his seemingly only option was to take his own life.

Rachel reached forward and placed her hand on top of her brother's. "I'm so sorry. That shouldn't have happened."

"But it did. We can't change it," Tim said.

"Did you talk to someone?" Rachel asked.

"I talked to a lot of people, on a daily basis. That's the thing about trying to kill yourself. You find yourself surrounding by about a dozen doctors and in more therapy than you can imagine," Tim said.

"Good. So you said the Admiral was threatening to go public, right?" Rachel asked.

Tim nodded. "He said he'd tell everyone I know what I did. I tried to call his bluff, but the way he sounded made me think he might actually do it."

"I doubt he would. Abusers never admit to what they are. You do realize that's what it was, right. You were abused. We all were in one way or another. That's something I had to come to accept not long after we left. It was a very hard realization, but it's a fact," Rachel said. It had been difficult to accept that she was abused. Being a statistic of abuse was not something she liked to think of herself as.

"Yeah, I know. I don't like it, but I know. The way he treated us was terrible. For a while, I thought it was borderline abusive, but over time, I came to realize that it was abuse. You wanna know what the worst part is? Until I found out about Kate, I still yearned for his respect and his love. How screwed up is that?" Tim asked. He hated that his father had been able to do that. The man treated him worse than garbage on his shoe, yet Tim had still loved him? He loved him up until her found out the crap his sister had been put through.

"Unfortunately that's normal, Tim. Do you know how many abuse victims I've seen that are the same way. They're tortured physically, emotionally, or both by the people they love, yet they still love them and feel like they owe them. It's part of it. That's part of the abuse."

"You two didn't have that problem," Tim said.

"He wasn't our father. He never pretended to give a damn about us and we never felt like he was supposed to. That's why in many ways it was worse for you. He was your father and you loved him. He preyed on that. He used it to abuse you further," Kate said.

Tim sighed. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. It's over now. He can't hurt us anymore."

"That's not entirely true. He's been hurting you plenty since he got here. It's time to end that. You have to tell Gibbs the truth. We _both_ have to tell Gibbs the truth," Kate said. It was time to come clean about everything, including what happened to her at the hands of the Admiral. Gibbs needed to know all there was to know about the Admiral.

Tim turned to her surprised. "You wanna tell him what happened to you? Why? You shouldn't have to go through that."

"None of us should have to go through any of this, but we do. Gibbs needs to know all about the Admiral. He needs to be aware of who he's dealing with so he can figure out the best way to handle him," Kate explained.

"Kate's right. I don't know your boss, but I think this is the best way to handle this. I'm gonna come with you. We handle this as a family from now on. That's just the way it's gotta be," Rachel asked.

Tim nodded after minute. He was still not looking forward to this, but if he had Rachel and Kate with him, he could do it. He could do anything with their support. "Alright."

"Well, we should get ready. We should go now and get it over with," Kate said.

"I'll go get dressed," Tim said before standing up and heading back towards the guest room.


End file.
